The adventure writer found absent humans more frightening than a half-tonne gorilla during his quest to see all the great ape species left in the wild.
You are best known for your travels in search of cannibals. What made you turn your attention to the great apes?
On my trips to Africa I kept seeing the effects of logging, poaching and the charcoal trade. Forests are becoming like deserts and the numbers of apes are plunging. I passionately wanted to bring their plight to the notice of people who might be able to do something to save them. So I set myself a quest 鈥� to see all the species and subspecies of great apes in the wild. I especially wanted to see the Cross river gorilla, a subspecies of the western gorilla. There are only 300 left and no reporter had ever visited them before.
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Some of the places you travelled to are notorious trouble spots, yet you still went. Why?
Looking at captive apes doesn鈥檛 tell you much about them. In the wild, each subspecies of ape has its own culture and behaviour. It鈥檚 the great apes鈥� bad luck that their habitats are in some of the most violent, corrupt places on earth. But if you are going to report a war you have to go and see for yourself, and if you are going to report on great apes you have to do the same.
You were charged by a half-tonne silverback gorilla. How did you react?
I鈥檇 been told that if you stay put, drop to your knees and put some leaves in your mouth, they generally aren鈥檛 going to beat you up 鈥� so I did just that. If you run you could provoke a chase and then they might bite a chunk out of your neck. Forest elephants are scarier: it鈥檚 amazing how fast an overweight middle-aged city-dweller can move when threatened by an angry elephant.
Did you have any other potentially deadly encounters?
Not with the apes. Bonobos aren鈥檛 violent, the orang-utans were wonderful and the chimps were only violent towards each other. But you are always in danger from other humans. In the Central African Republic we came across a camp used by poachers 鈥� the fire still warm, their sleeping mats stacked in a pile. That was terrifying because we didn鈥檛 know how close they were. They have AK-47 rifles and large-bore shotguns to kill elephants, and you never know how they will react when you cross paths. But remember, the guys trying to protect great apes have to face this every day.
In the end you never saw a Cross river gorilla in the wild. Were you disappointed?
They were there 鈥� I heard a male thump his chest in warning 鈥� but they didn鈥檛 show themselves. I鈥檓 happy about that. I鈥檓 pleased that they hate humans and kept out of our way. That improves their chances of survival.
Can the great apes be saved?
The only way to guarantee there will be some left in the wild in 50 years is to have pockets of heavily defended habitat with anti-poaching patrols at least as well armed as the poachers. The impetus and the funding must come from western governments and they must ensure that it goes where it is needed.
Read more: 50-year countdown to an apeless world
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Paul Raffaele, an Australian journalist, has visited some of the world鈥檚 most dangerous wilds. He describes his quest to see all the great apes in his new book Among the Great Apes
