In the Kingdom of Gorillas: Fragile Species in a Dangerous Land

Rich with details about the gorillas’ lives, the realities of conservation, and portraits of ordinary people caught in extraordinary times, this is a riveting adventure story that is sure to take its place among the classic accounts of the world of nature. In 1978, when Bill Weber and Amy Vedder arrived in Rwanda to study mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey, the gorilla population was teetering towards extinction. Poaching was rampant, but it was loss of habitat that most endangered the gorillas. When yet another slice of the Virunga Mountains was targeted for development, Weber and Vedder recognized that the gorillas were doomed unless something was done to save their land. Over Fossey’s objections, they helped found the Mountain Gorilla Project. The MGP was designed to educate Rwandans about the gorillas and about the importance of conservation, while at the same time establishing an ecotourism project - one of the first anywhere in a rainforest - to bring desperately needed revenue to Rwanda. Weber and Vedder describe their experiences getting to know entire families of gorillas, from powerful silverback patriarchs to helpless newborn infants. They tell us about the gorillas they recognised and came to know as individuals, stories both tragic and joyful. They describe a landscape that was heaven one day, green hell the next. And they tell of their discovery of the terrible and mysterious events surrounding Fossey’s murder. They explain that the key to saving the mountain gorillas was helping the people of Rwanda–even in the face of a horrendous civil war–to share in the benefits of conservation.