Dear Friend,
A few weeks ago, I wrote to you about a family of Cross River gorillas โ the most critically endangered gorilla subspecies โ captured in still images from camera traps in the Mawambi Hills forests of Southwest Cameroon.
Today, along with our partners at Community-Based Biosynergy Management (CBBM), we have something even more remarkable to show: our first video camera trap footage of Cross River gorillas!
In the video above, two Cross River gorillas pass through the frame in separate clips, each glancing at the camera as they go.
Then two chimpanzees appear, and one of them, after walking past at first, returns to the lens, a face visible in the frame as they study this strange new object in their world.
That moment stopped me, because I remembered that Koko did the same thing!
Iโve spent a lifetime watching her examine the world around her, investigating objects and peering into lenses.
To see a wild chimpanzee meet a camera with the same intentness showed me again that curiosity is one of the threads connecting all great apes, including us.
Moments like these do more than document who is living in the forest. They offer a glimpse of individual lives, and remind us why protecting our fellow great apes, and treating them with respect, matters so deeply.
With Koko love,
Penny Patterson
President, CEO and Founder
The Gorilla Foundation / koko.org
Conservation through Communication
The Gorilla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our Federal Tax ID is: 942-38-6151
