According to BBC report,there's this Congolese man whose purpose of existence on earth is nothing other than to cater for all the gorillas available!..
In the news,Park ranger Andre Bauma has been taking care of orphaned mountain gorillas at Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, for the past seven years, and he says he loves them as
if they were his own children.
One gorilla, Ndakasi, is particularly close to Bauma. She sees him as her mother, and despite being a man - and a human to boot - he has taken on that role. "We shared the same bed, I played with her, I fed her… I can say I am her mother," he says.
They met in terrible circumstances. Ndakasi was a two-month-old infant when her mother was shot at close range through the back of the head - the park describes it as an "execution". Ndakasi was still clinging to her dead mother when they found her. "She was tiny, she only weighed a couple of kilos," says Bauma. Ever since he picked her up from the forest floor, he has dedicated his life to saving hers.
"Every single individual gorilla is crucial because it's an endangered species - so we had to take care of it, we took her in," he says.
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“
I find them very intelligent... I can hear by their tone of voice if they're scared of something”
Andre Bauma
Ndakasi was born into a renowned group of mountain gorillas called the Rugendo family, seven of whose members were slaughtered in the attack in 2007 that orphaned Ndakasi.
Bauma now heads the gorilla orphanage, located at the park headquarters in Rumangabo. Ndakasi was the first to be housed there, but she was soon joined by Ndeze, another member of the Rugendo family. In 2010 the two females were joined by Maisha, another female, and Kaboko, a male - both had been seized by poachers, and Kaboko had lost his hand in a snare. Kaboko died in 2012, but since then another orphan has joined the gang - Matabishi, a young male found abandoned outside the park.
talking about how he communicates with these animals,he said communicating is not a problem!...
The rangers communicate with the gorillas using a combination of gestures and voice commands.
"For instance there is the approaching call to tell them: 'Here I am, I'm coming, I'm going to stand next to you, there's no problem everything's fine,'" says Bauma - this sounds like a long, low grunt. "I can also forbid them something," he says. "I can tell them: 'This is not good, you mustn't do this.'" That command sounds like a series of short uhs.
In fact, communicating is not a problem at all, says Bauma. "I find them very intelligent and I can understand anything. I can hear by their tone of voice if they're scared of something, if they're worried, if there's something wrong with the food, if they feel they're in danger… There are different sounds they make and because we've lived together for so long I'm quite good at recognising their mood."
apart from that,Bauma has a secret weapon: Pringles - among them is the salty potato snacks. "When you give them something they like, they realise that you're their friend. We do not give it to them as food, but rather as a tactic to handle them," he says.
Virunga National Park is one of the most biologically diverse protected areas on the planet. It was set up in 1925 primarily to protect the mountain gorilla, and a quarter or more of the world's 800-to-900 mountain gorillas live within it. According to WWF, one of the animals can indirectly generate £2.5m ($4m) in tourist income over its lifetime - and in the 1970s the park was popular, welcoming an average of 6,500 visitors per year.
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