gorilla destroying snares (photo credit: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund)
There’s no doubt that gorillas are incredibly intelligent. For the first time ever a group of gorilla juveniles have been seen destroying poachers snares. Adult gorillas are known to destroy snares but now it seems that the youth are playing their part too.
Field researchers from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund discovered two juveniles and one blackback gorilla working together to deactivate two basic poachers snares. Previously this sort of action has only been observed with silverback gorillas.
John Ndayambaje, a field co-ordinator from the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda, saw a snare very close to a group of gorillas and decided to move in and disable it.
As he moved in the silverback of the group grunted a warning to the researchers and the three young gorillas quickly headed to the snare to disarm it by working together to pull the branch that the ropes where attached to. After disarming that snare the young gorillas then headed to another close by snare and disarmed that one.
The discovery of the new skills by these young gorillas is a real boost especially as just a couple of days earlier a dead gorilla was found in a snare – the second one discover this year by the stations trackers.
External sites:
Dian Fossy Gorilla Fund: Notes from the Field.
