keepers of the forest

Heading deep into the Congo Basin, Stanley Stewart searches for connection with the magnificent lowland gorillas that call this place home

In the half-light of the equatorial jungle of the Congo Basin, we whispered to one another, our voices sounding thin and reedy in this colossal place. The tracker silenced us and motioned for us to stop. We stood in the narrow trail, as still as statues, listening, holding our breath. I could feel my heart pumping.

It was 6 a.m., and in the predawn we were tracking a family of lowland gorillas, tiptoeing in single file into the green depths of one of the world's greatest rain forests. Gabin Okele, the tracker, had already warned us against sudden movements, to keep our voices low and avoid eye contact, as if we were outsiders walking into some locals-only bar.

Ahead of us now, Okele crouched and peered through the forest understory. Turning, he mouthed a single word: "Close." For a moment all was still. And then, as if in a dream, a huge gorilla barely 30 feet away shouldered his way through the bushes, a dark figure with a flash of silver across his back. A second later he was gone, disappearing into the thickets of foliage. That sighting was so strange and eerie that for a little while, I wondered if I had imagined it.

But I hadn't. We followed the silverback, then spent the next hour watching him and his family of eight at breakfast. I had hoped for more action: squabbles, chest thumping, mating rituals. But this gorilla breakfast was as refined as a tea party. Thick-necked, broad-shouldered, with arms like tree trunks, the great apes sat on their haunches, delicately plucking tiny leaves here and there, thoughtfully chewing them in their massive jaws. It was as if we had stumbled on sumo wrestlers bent over floral needlework. Stranger still was the way the gorillas ignored us. They were aloof and detached. I had hoped for a flicker of recognition, a connection. Were they not intrigued by the resemblance, our gestures, mannerisms, and faces so like their own?