Once during her field studies, she was sitting next to a huge mature male, known as a silverback, more than 6 feet tall and about 400 rock-hard pounds. Arnold Schwarzenegger has nothing compared to this. The gorilla wanted Steklis to move. She's small, nothing that a sweep of a hairy arm couldn' t knock away. Instead, the gorilla put a hand gently on her shoulder, guided her to another spot, then returned to his spot.
Every gorilla has a personality.
Dian Fossey, who spent years living among them, brought them worldwide attention with her book Gorillas in the Mist , which also inspired the 1988 Hollywood movie. She conducted her work at the other mountain gorilla refuge, about 25 miles from Bwindi. Factional fighting has kept the park unsafe. Once it is safe for visitors to return, the mountain gorillas will once again start seeing hairless apes in bright colors peering through the foliage. The recent tourist slayings could hamper those efforts.