The unsuspected energy of gorilla females | EUROtoday

On May 18, 2025

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LA science, just like the jungle, solely delivers its secrets and techniques to sufferers. You must sink into it, bend the water, squeeze your tooth, consent to ignorance earlier than hoping for a flash of fact. So the ebook opens Queen Kong From Shelly Masi*, and the tone is about: it won’t be a easy journey story, however a protracted body-to-body with the residing, An initiation crossing the place scientific rigor mixes with sweat, worry, surprise and slowly quest for information.

In the early 2000s, Shelly Masi, a younger researcher, left the snug life in Rome for the inexperienced opacity of the Central African Republic. She goes to satisfy the gorillas. Not those who the cameras made well-known, the icons of the mountains with giant black eyes as they seem within the movie Gorillas within the mist With Sigourney Weaver,, studied and identified for the reason that Seventies.

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No,, Those of the Western Plains. We knew them badly. Barely. Or reasonably, we thought we knew them, by putting the figures of their mountain cousins on them. “We had deduced their ecological characteristics, their diet, their type of habitat, but many biases danted this data, simply because we did not directly observe the behavior of animals,” she writes. But in 2001, genetic analysis revealed that these are two totally different species.

The gorilla, champion of pace within the forest

Begins the sector take a look at. The dampness. The critters. And what the inhabitants name Ebuka, Green hell. A forest so dense that it closes its branches behind every step. It is just not a easy immersion, it’s a stripping. Shelly Masi should study to stroll in silence, to learn the traces, to freeze when she is loaded by “a screaming colossus”.

It is one thing to like animals, it’s one other to satisfy them within the breath of their wild energy. “The gorilla is a champion of pace within the tangled lianas forest. He would meet up with you and throw himself on you to chew your lengthy sharp canines, to punish you and get again to you. The greatest technique is to stay completely immobile hoping that he’ll deviate his assault on the final second, as a result of he may have seen you defenseless, however not submissive. »»

To perceive the conduct of gorillas, it’s important to be accepted. The accustomed course of is lengthy, six to eight years on common for these of the plains, in opposition to two years for his or her mountain cousins. Reason is linked to the character of their setting. “The slope of the reliefs permits higher visibility by far, and subsequently a progressive strategy to animals. The gorillas of the mountains populate sparse forests, on the bottom lined with herbs, the place their tramples dig actual boulevards. Following the identical group every day is sort of kid’s play. But in plain forests, it is an entire totally different story. The plentiful cover makes the undergrowth little herbaceous. Following on the traces of the identical household of gorillas is an actual feat, particularly since these within the West transfer rather more and sooner than their mountain cousins, due to their very frugivore weight loss plan in summer season. »»

Accompanied by males who see the invisible

At first, the gorillas with a brief and colourful coat are afraid and run away. Then, the silver again, the chief, annoys and tries to intimidate the observers. “He loads, tears off the branches and lianas, breaks the vegetation and produces terrifying howls that resemble the roar of a lion, then the barking of a large dog. »»

Shelly is accompanied by the Bayakas, men of the forest, known throughout Africa to approach the gorillas with elegance and agility, ofhave she greets the expertise. “These are actual forest geniuses,” she writes. They see the invisible. And I’m not exaggerating. They move in perfect silence. They know how to avoid lianas and walk on the carpet of dry leaves as on velvet. Their hearing and smell are practically bionic. They hear by far the murmur of a leaf torn by the gorillas, as well as their low and timid vocalizations. They are able to feel hundreds of meters the spicy smell typical of silver backs. »»

They challenge, fight and vote with sound “grunts”

But Shelly is good. She stays. She perseves. And the branches, little by little, go away. Slowly, another world takes shape. What we thought was simple hierarchy is a network. In reverse of stereotypes, the researcher highlights that the jungle is not the scene of a dominant male and a courtyard of docile females. The silver back, impressive of stature, is not this undisputed monarch that scientific stories have raised to the rank of icon. It is essential, takes the best share of the fruit, is placed in the center.

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But he does not decide alone. Power here does not concentrate. It is shared, moves, is negotiated, sometimes without noise, sometimes with brilliance. When the females discover a generous fruit tree, they emit “meals songs” to prevent the group, report their find. And this simple call can move an entire troop. They choose their partner, watch over their little ones, even their chipes even eat. They tie alliances, fight like titans. They sometimes dispute the figure of the colossus, even knowing that the battle is lost in advance. When the time comes to move, they vote by sound “grunts” in order to fix the direction.

“Queen Kong” who know how to do well, are fabricating

Sometimes, in this competitive universe, a form of tenderness is born. A friendship between females. Shelly learns it, day after day. The silver back can impress. It stands to protect. He screams if you have to defend. He takes his share, often the first. He watches over the unit. But he is not a tyrant, “in any other case he would precipitate the demise of his household”. And the jungle has nothing to do with lonely size. To last, you have to compose. Far from being a king, his silver back is rather an “enlightened prince”, she says.

To uncover

The kangaroo of the day

Answer

With tact, precision and a way of narration, Shelly Masi gives us a textual content that’s each scientific, political and deeply delicate, A ebook that questions our gaze, our tales and the constructions that we venture on the residingNT: In this world that we thought was macho, Queen Kong Hold the reins and know easy methods to get out of the sport.

* Queen Kong of Shelly Masi,, Albin Michel, 2025, 21.90 euros.

https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/le-pouvoir-insoupconne-des-femelles-gorilles-18-05-2025-2589849_23.php