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Friends Aram Calhoun and Mac Hunter, both ecologists, called me one morning and told me about a trip they had planned to Uganda. The birding will be great, they said, and they planned to apply for permits to go tracking and photographing mountain gorillas, too. We think you’d really enjoy this trip, they said. But I had to let them know that evening because those permits are hard to get, and the applications had to be mailed the next day.
I said thanks, and I would think about it and let them know. I had a busy day; no time to find out anything about Uganda. But I pondered the idea to and from my job as director of the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden. I thought about how the other trips I have taken with Calhoun and Hunter had been stellar, if rigorous. Our goals are always similar – to see wild landscapes, habitats and wildlife of all kinds. I thought about how I had not scheduled any other trip this year. I thought about regret, and how I had never regretted taking advantage of an exciting opportunity, but sometimes had regretted not seizing such a chance. And that evening, without knowing anything about Uganda, I said, “Yes. Count me in.” I got my plane tickets and started to read about the East African nation.
I learned that birders go to Uganda to see the shoebill, a bird with an enormous bill. In pictures, the shoebill looks somewhat like a heron, but its proportions are peculiar. Its bill looks like a size 12 shoe. Its neck is shorter and thicker than that of a heron, and its legs are longer – a strange bird indeed. If I was going all the way to Uganda, I wanted to see that bird!
I was less enthusiastic about mountain gorillas. I had seen gorillas in zoos when my (now adult) children were young. At that time, I thought gorillas were dull, and sometimes downright revolting. But I might as well see them if I’m there, I thought. Also on the schedule was tracking chimpanzees, and looking for the rare giant forest hog. My sons thought it was very funny that I would go looking for a “Giant Forest Hawg.”
Once we had secured gorilla permits and visas for Uganda, we headed for Boston, London, Nairobi, and finally, two days later, Entebbe airport. We were met by an African driver hired for us by an African ecotouring company. He knew the route we were taking very well.
Our first day, we drove from the capital of Kampale west through agricultural lands to a marsh on Lake Victoria where shoebills are sometimes found. We went to the water’s edge where long boats awaited. Local people adept with poles and paddles took us through narrow channels in the marsh. Beautiful purple and russet kingfishers, much smaller than the kingfisher in Maine, flew ahead of our boat. Another boat passed us on its way out of the marsh with another group of birders. They had not seen the shoebill, alas.
We turned this way and that way through the marsh, watching everywhere for new sights. We saw magenta water lilies, cormorants, ducks and other wetland wonders. Suddenly our guides’ attention was riveted to the sky; then their faces were joyful as they pointed to their quarry. They had found the shoebill for us. They were as delighted as we were.
Slowly, an enormous bird circled above. It had long, broad wings, an extended neck, long legs trailing behind, and an outsized bill that looked like the shoe part of an L.L. Bean boot. The bird spiraled down and landed in the marsh, and we got good looks at this rare bird.
We saw more than 250 bird species in Uganda, but that was the largest and the most spectacular.
Uganda is where the rain forests of Western Africa meet the mountains and the dry savannahs and plains of Eastern Africa. We hiked and drove, searching for birds and other wildlife in a hot, humid lowland rain forest, in the cool mountains, in the hot, dry savannahs, and acacia woodlands.
So many bird species live in Africa, words can’t be found to name them all. So bird names are recombined, and there are many species of robin-chat, ground robin, scrub-robin, forest robin. Also there are big birds: Goliath heron, giant kingfisher.
After all that birding, it was time to turn to the mammals.
We looked for the rare giant forest hog for an entire evening in the forest and all the next morning, then finally found a pair of them at the edge of a town, of all places, in someone’s backyard near an airport. The hogs were huge, with long tusks and coarse, black hair all over. They are rare because they are overhunted for their meat and have a relatively slow reproductive rate.
Wart hogs, however, are very common. One big male wart hog was hanging out around some picnic tables where we stayed. We left our backpacks on the ground next to a table and became distracted by some birds. Suddenly, the wart hog dragged away a backpack, went through it, hauled out a plastic bag, and ate our rolls! The plastic bag drifted away in the hot breeze. We went to fetch the bag, not to litter. The wart hog charged us and tossed his head with huge tusks, way too close for comfort.
Well, on to the primates.
At Kimbale National Park we went with guides through the forest to track and find chimpanzees. First we found chimpanzee scat, then a knuckle print; we then heard a chimp hoot and saw a family group. We watched them quietly with our binoculars for 15 minutes before they took off overland, loping quickly along on their long arms and legs.
Then we came to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, the home of the last mountain gorillas in Uganda. Ecotourism is one of Uganda’s most important sources of foreign currency, and the gorillas are carefully guarded as the centerpiece of attractions. Here, eight families of gorillas are habituated to the presence of benign, quiet humans. Tours are limited to six people at a time. About 40 permits are sold daily throughout the year, a significant source of revenues for the country.
People with gorilla permits gather at park headquarters on their allotted day. They are divided in groups of six permit holders. Each group has two expert trackers, one naturalist, and one armed guard. Each group hikes up and down ridges and mountains until they find a family of gorillas. They are then allowed to spend up to an hour, no more, quietly observing gorillas. No loud talking, no approaching the gorillas, no flash photos. Then the permittees hike back, up and down ridges, across streams, through the rain forest, through the undergrowth of nettles, back to park headquarters.
What an hour of observation! My group (gorillas, not permittees!) consisted of two babies, two juveniles, three adult females, and one “silverback,” as the huge adult males are called. One female was sleeping, another was stripping silvery hairs off nettles to eat the green juicy insides. The young ones were playing, wrestling around with and running away from each other. Two rambunctious young gorillas chased each other, the first looking back over its shoulder at the other. They both crashed headlong into the seated silverback pater familia. The 600-pound male, broad of beam with huge arms, simultaneously gave each youngster a one-arm hug and turned them loose to play again. It was very touching.
We also saw them resting, feeding, climbing trees, sticking a finger up a nostril. Then it seemed they had enough of being observed. They loped away on arms and legs before our hour was spent.
I took a deep breath. These were the not the same pathetic and pathological beings I had seen in a zoo 25 years ago. These gorillas had seemed so gentle, and in many ways much like us, having hands and fingernails much like ours, having a content family life together. They also seemed noble and wise in the context of their own environment, knowing what they needed to know in the habitat of mountain rain forest.
Judy Kellogg Markowsky will present a slide show, “Gorillas of the Misty Mountains” at the Fields Pond Audubon Center, 216 Fields Pond Road, Holden, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29. A fee of $6 per person supports the Audubon center. Call 989-2591 for questions or driving directions.
“Gorillas of the Misty Mountains”
What: Slide show by Judy Kellogg Markowsky
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 29
Where: Fields Pond Audubon Center, 216 Fields Pond Road, Holden
Cost: $6 per person
Contact: 989-2591
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