IN LAND OF PIGMIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 27 July 1929, Page 11

IN LAND OF PIGMIES

NATIONAL PARK CREATED PROTECTION OF ANIMALS THE MOUNTAIN GORILLA Probably one of the most creditable achievements in the preservation of wild flora, wild game, and a wild primitive people for the purposes of scientific research is the founding of the Albert National Park in tlie heart of the Belgian Congo—a prodigious work, which is now nearing completion. The remarkable progress achieved to date, and plans for the extension of the work, were outlined recently hy Baron de Cartier de Marchieiine, the Belgian Ambassador to Britain, and Dr. J. M. Dorschicd, Secretary of the International lnforniatory Office for the Protection of Nature, at Brussels, the scientific investigator who was responsible for the practical working out of the plan. “ft was King Albert who first, in 1925, decided to institute this national park,” Baron do Cartier explained. “In the course of his travels in America, as Heir Apparent, in 1899, lie had visited tlie great national parks there, such as Yellowstone and Yosemite Valley, and lie was anxious that similar reserves for native fauna and flora should he created in the. Congo. But with this difference: whereas these great parks in (lie United Stales are run chiefly for the benefit of visitors and liolidavseekers, that in the Congo, with its rare natural resources, should, first and foremost, subserve the interests of international science—constitute a great scientific centre, in fact, where the scientists of the world could study, undisturbed and unmolested, animal, plant, and native life in their actual, unspoilt environment.” THE MOUNTAIN GORILLA Dr. Dcrsclieid, taking up the narrative, explained that the area of the park was now no less than 450,000 acres, comprising hilly hush country, plain, and marshland, between the two great lakes of Kivu and Edward, and including eight big volcanoes, two of them active, the highest rising to 15,000 feet. Living unhampered in this vast area were at least 000 specimens of the big mountain gorilla not found in any other part of the world, some 80,000 antelopes of every kind, chimpanzees, baboons, more than 100 elephants, buffaloes, hippopotami, raro birds, and —to complete this natural wonderland of wild, life—a tribe of about 300 pigmies, which it was thought best not to disturb in any way, but leave to live their normal life as hunters of bush pig and antelope with spear and bow and arrow. “An American scientist, the late Carl Akeley, of the American Museum of Natural History, had been over the ground in 1921,” said Dr. Derschcid, “and he informed Baron de Cartier that he thought it ideal for the national park he had in mind. A start was made hy marking, as a game reserve in which all shooting was prohibited, a fringe of bush encircling the original area, and thus completely isolating it from native interference. In this way the National Albert Park began in 1925. “In 1920 Akeley and myself, with Mrs Akeley and two assistants, began a thorough survey of the ground lifter studying the methods of the British game preserves around Nairobi. Unfortunately, we were only eight days on our journey when Akeley died from exposure, for although we were hut one degree from the Equator, snow lay thick at that high elevation. Mrs Akeley, despite her grief, stayed on, and, thanks to her inspiring example, we were able to complete the work her husband had set out to accomplish. EXTERMINATION PREVENTED “It is certain that, if these steps had not been taken, the gorillas would have been totally exterminated in a few years, for a specimen is worth about £2OO to the native hunter,” declared Dr. Dcrsclieid. “They arc fine beasts, about sft tall, and harmless enough if you do not provoke them when, say, they are with their young. I have been as near as 10yds to a herd of them, and only once was I attacked. The female rears its young in a sort of lair on tlie ground, but when the youngster gets to four or five years old it is made to sleep in branches above ground at night to guard it from surprise attacks by leopards and so forth, while the adults lie side by side oil the ground beneath. “But, interesting as these gorillas are, the pigmies, living their normal life in their natural environment of wild forest, are even more interesting, from the scientific point of view. Their presence in tho midst of the Albert National Park will help to keep the natural balance of nature, which is what we want, above all, to see preserved.

“As for the climate, it is, of course, tropical in the low areas, but very healthy and alpine in the high. The landscape is a wonderful one; in parts, you will find wild heather growing to a height of several feet.”. One corner of the gorilla country, in the Bufumbiro district, extends, for about 24 square miles into British Uganda. An effort is accordingly to be made to induce the Uganda authorities to mark off this section also as a game preserve, and thus prevent native disturbance of these rare creatures; and. the destruction of tile forest by char-coal-makers.