But these gorillas weren’t from the wild. They were humans dressed in gorilla costumes in the seven-kilometer Great Gorilla Run, an annual event in London’s calendar to help raise funds and awareness about the endangered species.[break]
And doing his part, at 9 am, Martin Palmer was already set for the run for the second time. As he stepped outside the tube station at London’s Monument Station and made swift steps to the venue, the 38-year-old didn’t hesitate to express his motive to take part in one of London’s quirky events.
“It’s a fantastically fun and entertaining fundraising event,” said the IT professional dressed in his gorilla suit.
While most of the participants gathered and participated for fun, they were also aware of the issue that tagged along.
According to Jillian Miller, Director of Gorilla Organization that puts on the race—now in its eighth year—the event has served its purpose: raising awareness and generating funds for the conservation of gorillas.
Predominantly found in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the worldwide population of gorillas in the wild, according to Gorilla Organization, has increased from 650 to about 800 this year.
Yet, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, Eastern Gorillas (Mountain Gorillas and Eastern Lowland Gorillas) “have been and are still severely affected by human activity.” The organization reasons their decline on hunting and increasing population.
While the Eastern Gorillas found in Rwanda, Uganda, and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are on IUCN’s endangered list, the Western Gorillas found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Rio Muni in mainland Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Cabinda in Angola, and possibly in the Democratic Republic of Congo are listed as critically endangered, facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Henry Cirhuza, Gorilla Organization’s program manager in the Democratic Republic of Congo, says the decline in gorilla population varies according to different regions.
In an e-mail from Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he is based, Cirhuza mentions that in the Kahuzi Biega National Park in eastern part of the country, it’s armed groups that hunt gorillas for bush meat serves as a severe threat, while in the Virunga National Park, it’s the loss of gorilla habitats due to human encroachment, and in the Walikale Reserve, trafficking of gorilla babies is a huge problem.
Thus, Miller says that local communities have to be involved in the conservation efforts. “These days you can’t save species by putting [them inside] fences. You have to work with communities,” he says.
In recent years, Cirhuza, who has been working in thegorilla conservation sector for a decade now, says the integration of local communities into conservation projects has helped protect the species.
“We teach poachers to become farmers, tree planting instead of going to cut timber in the national parks. We educate and sensitize people to protect the environment,” he writes in an e-mail to The Week.
And the co-relation between humans, gorillas and the ecological biodiversity is in fact a sensitive issue and should be studied carefully, says Alexandra Desousa, an anthropology researcher and a second-time London Great Gorilla Run participant. Gorillas, which fall within the hominidae species of the apes along with orangutans, common chimpanzees, bonobos and humans, share a close relation to humans.
As she ran along with her husband and two daughters, dressed in Portuguese football jersey and shorts, Desousa, who did her research on comparative brain anatomy between apes and humans, says she was participating in the run because she “cares about the apes.“You can’t understand people without understanding apes,” she says. “We have a good opportunity to understand ourselves through apes.”
A group of five from Norway, who flew to London especially for the run, expressed the same sentiment.
Dressed up in their gorilla suit with their Norwegian flag t-shirts, Helge Nielsen says that the run is difficult for people to ignore, and many end up asking the reason behind their costume.
Flipping through his iPhone’s photo gallery, the 37-year-old who works in an insurance company shows himself dressed as a gorilla at his workplace in Norway, on his flight to London, and even after he landed at Gatwick Airport. “It does help to raise awareness,” he says.
Palmer, who took the tube in his gorilla suit, agrees. “There are two types of people—people who ignore you and others who smile back. Either way, it’s amusing, and people get talking [about the issue],” he says.
As they got ready for the race, while some smiled about the warm weather compared to last year’s event, others shared their first-time experience in the furry costume as “hot” and “scratchy.” But that didn’t matter.
As the run kicked off at 10:30 am, amid upbeat music, 450 human gorillas ran, jogged and walked from the London Underwriting Centre through London’s famous landmarks, including the London Bridge and Waterloo Bridge and along the banks of River Thames back to the finish line.
And as the participants made their 7kms race, tourists on London Bridge stopped to take photos, people resting on the benches along the Thames gazed, smiled and captured the gorillas on their smart phones, and people lazing around the Bankside Pier cheered and clapped.
Ana Vega, a spectator close to the Bankside Pier, was taking pictures on her iPhone as the gorillas passed. A teacher by profession, Vega says the race is a “fun idea to raise money and promote a cause.”
But, as it seems, organizers and people working in conservation speak about the challenges of putting together such events and generating funds for a cause.
Bill Oddie, British media personality, conservationist and a long-time associate of the run, tells The Week that the demand for fund in any conservation projects is huge and “it’s a challenge to get people involved and get publicity,” especially with the global recession and other priorities that people have.
But at the same time, he doesn’t deter from vouching for the Great Gorilla Run to be “one of the best fundraising conservation events, which is visually great to look at.”
In fact, it was equally visually striking to see human gorillas dressed in costumes from Elvis to Santa and cheerleaders to football players.
But the core of the walk was linked to a purpose. Apart from a Saturday morning fun and a scene replicating Halloween for humans in gorilla suits, the underscoring element was the conservation of the species, the planet, and its biodiversity.
As Miller from the Gorilla Organization puts it, “Ten years ago, gorilla conservation appealed to people who cared about animals.
This race has brought it into a global context. People are running because they want to protect the planet and its biodiversity. Every mile you walk is absolutely worth it, and it makes a huge difference.” And that’s what it’s all about, really.
Bhandari is the UK based Correspondent of The Week.
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