Gorilla Watching

Reviews the books, The Year of the Gorilla by George B. Schaller (1964); and The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior by George E. Schaller (see record 1964-00458-000). The book, The Year of the Gorilla, is an enchanting popular volume by a resolute, behavior-oriented scientist who unflinchingly observed many mountain gorillas at close range-often eye to eye-in their native habitat. The survey and observations have yielded a mass of data to end speculation based on earlier reports--many of them hearsay--of naturalists, hunters, and a few scientists. The survey indicates that mountain gorillas are confined to about eight or nine thousand square miles. Schaller watched groups for hours at a time and sometimes slept nearby Individuals became recognizable to him, and he dubbed them with names befitting their appearance or personality. He became involved in their pioblems, their injuiies, then illnesses and felt such deep affinity that once he angrily stunned an illegally glazing Watutsi cow because it threatened the apes' future food supply. Not only did he like his subjects, but he so successfully communicated their appeal that the reader also empathizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)