What's it like to be a National Geographic explorer/filmmaker/scientist, hip-deep in a swamp in equatorial Africa, edging up to a family of grumpy lowland gorillas?

Photo courtesy Mireya Mayor

It's anything but comfortable. Sweat bees get in the eyes, tsetse flies bite, worms can burrow into the skin, and there's always the prospect of being charged by an elephant that thinks you're up to no good.

All these things have been endured by Mireya Mayor, who is working on a documentary about western lowland gorillas for the National Geographic Channel.

She is on her way to the eastern Congo to resume filming--but thanks to the wonders of digital technology we will be able to keep track of her whereabouts via the Mireya Tracker on her Web site and receive live updates from the field.

"The last time I was in close proximity to the gorillas," Mayor told me in a phone interview while she was boarding a plane en route to Africa, "a silverback ran up to me and gave me a swat. It's the ultimate experience one can have with a gorilla."

Photo courtesy Mireya Mayor

It's a good thing that Mayor gets such a thrill from such wild encounters. Not many people would relish the arduous schlep into swampland only to be charged by a 350-pound gorilla. It's like a scene out of an indiana Jones movie.

But this is all in a day's work for Mireya Mayor, who has been described by the New York Times as a female Indiana Jones.

The former Miami Dolphins cheerleader and model has a Ph.D. in anthropology and is one of the world's foremost experts on primates. Her work has taken her to some of the most forbidding places on the planet.

Mayor is an emerging explorer for National Geographic and a National Geographic television correspondent. Most recently she starred in the History Channel series "Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone," as one of four explorers to retrace the nearly 1,000-mile trip through Africa of Henry Stanley and David Livingstone.

Mayor knows her primates. She is credited with the scientific co-discovery of the world's smallest primate, the mouse lemur, in Madagascar in 2002.

NGS photo by Mark Thiessen

Now Mayor is going back to one of the remotest corners of Africa, deep into the Congo rain forest, where one of the world's largest primates, the lowland gorilla, has been observed behaving in fascinating ways.

Gorillas Mating Face-to-Face

"They're the same gorillas that were documented mating facing one another," Mayor reminded me. You can see pictures and read about this behavior in the National Geographic News story "Gorillas Photographed Mating Face-to-Face--A First." Though the behavior had been observed before in mountain gorillas, it had never before been seen in the lowland gorilla subspecies--and had never before been photographed in the wild.

"And among these gorillas the males display some unusual splashing behavior to woo females," Mayor said.

It's gorilla behavior like this that Mayor and the National Geographic film crew are documenting. They will be trekking into Mbeli Bai, a swampy clearing in the Congo where at least a dozen gorilla families come to feed at a giant salad bar. The seasonal gathering of the clans is also an opportunity for males to find mates, and this is when they display some very interesting gorilla rituals.

"We still have so much to learn about them," Mayor said. "Unlike mountain gorillas, these lowland gorillas are not easily habituated to the presence of people. They have been hunted for centuries, so they are very wary. They hang around in places difficult for us to get into and we aren't able to get up very close to them."

I asked Mayor if there were a lot of snakes in the swamp. "I've seen them ... but I'm more on the look-out for elephants," she said. "They can run faster they we can when they charge, so I like to know where they are and what they're doing."

Bookmark Mireya Mayor's Web site for regular updates from her from the Congo. The documentary she is working on will air on the National Geographic Channel next year.

The Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit in New York's Bronx Zoo is home to 19 of the great apes and an assortment of other animals. It has also raised almost U.S. $11,000,000 for the conservation of Central Africa's Congo Basin rain forest and wildlife, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which manages the zoo, said today.

WCS photos of Bronx Zoo gorillas celebrating tenth anniversary of exhibit by Julie Larsen Maher

"With this one exhibit, you can truly see the extraordinary power of the Bronx Zoo," said Steven E. Sanderson, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Through its ten-year history, the Congo Gorilla Forest has turned millions of our visitors into conservationists and has helped directly to fund the protection of wildlife and wild places."

Since it opened in 1999, seven million visitors have visited the exhibit, which allows zoo guests to donate their admission fees to WCS field conservation efforts in Central Africa. The donations have helped to create 18 national parks in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Gabon.

Protecting All Four Subspecies of Gorilla

"From its inception, the Congo Gorilla Forest was designed to raise funds and awareness of the plight of gorillas in Africa," the conservation charity said. "Today, WCS is working with the national park services of Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda to create and manage protected areas and protect all four subspecies of gorilla.

"Finally, the Congo experience culminates in the C.V. Starr Conservation Theater and Lila Acheson Wallace Great Gorilla Forest. Separated from the gorillas only by glass, the visitor's instinct is to touch the hand that looks so different, yet is so close." Various parts of the exhibit have been named after the most generous donors.

The two troops of gorillas in residence at the Bronx Zoo form one of the largest breeding groups of western lowland gorillas in North America, WCS said. Through the years, 14 gorillas, 23 red river hogs, 11 Wolf's guenons and four okapis have been born in the exhibit. "The WCS breeding programs for these species make significant contributions to the survival of their populations in zoos. This success is due to an immersing habitat and exceptional animal care and dedication."

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their exhibit, the 19 gorillas at the Bronx Zoo were given "cupcake" treats.

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

Much of WCS's work with gorillas in the wild is funded through the Biodiversity Program and Central Africa Program for the Environment of the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Great Ape Conservation Funds of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Through these critical programs, sustainable management practices are brought to key landscapes like the Congo Basin protecting great ape populations while promoting sustainable development for the people of the Congo," WCS said.

WCS is celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the Congo Gorilla Forest through a series of events sponsored by Bank of America, including guided tours, gorilla feeding times, African arts and crafts, traditional interactive African storytelling, and African dance and drum performances.

Said Jim Breheny, Director of the Bronx Zoo and WCS Senior Vice President of Living Institutions: "We invite all to visit the Bronx Zoo to help us celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Congo Gorilla Forest. There is nothing more magical than meeting a gorilla face-to-face, eye-to-eye. This landmark exhibit has made a difference in conservation, in zoo exhibit design and in the lives of millions of Bronx Zoo visitors over the last ten years."

WCS photo by Julie Larsen Maher

"One suspected trafficker was caught and arrested at Goma International Airport on Sunday while disembarking from a flight from Walikale (in the interior of the country and close to gorilla habitat) with an eastern lowland gorilla," according to a statement released by the park.

Photo of rescued gorilla courtesy Virunga National Park

The gorilla was found concealed under clothes at the bottom of a bag and was suffering from over-heating and dehydration after spending more than six hours in transit.

"Investigations have yet to reveal where these animals are being sent and who is buying them, but on-the-ground sources tell us that a baby gorilla can fetch up to U.S. $20,000," said Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park, which is in the eastern part of the Congo and home to populations of both mountain gorillas and lowland gorillas.

"We must remember that for each trafficked baby gorilla, several gorillas have probably been killed in the wild," De Merode continued in the news release. "If we want to preserve our gorillas--and other wildlife--significant resources must be invested to put a stop to these trafficking rings."

"She remains weak, and is suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, but is responding to treatment administered by MGVP," the news release said.

Photo of rescued gorilla courtesy Virunga National Park

Some 1,100 Park Rangers protect the national parks of eastern Congo, a region affected by a 12-year civil war and current political instability, the news release said. "These parks are home to mountain gorillas, lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants and rhinos, among other wildlife. The Rangers have remained active in protecting these parks, four of which have been classified as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Poaching, wildlife trafficking and habitat destruction remain the key threats to the survival of the wildlife in these parks."

Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest national park (established in 1925) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is home to 200 of the world's mountain gorillas and a small population of eastern lowland gorillas.

Updates and additional images can be found on the Virunga National Park's Web site.

Virunga National Park needs your help. Find out whay you can do.

Related stories from National Geographic News

"Spectacular" Gorilla Growth in Congo, Despite War

Baby Gorilla Found Alive After Mass "Execution" in Congo

Belgian Named New Warden of Troubled Gorilla Park

Inside the Gorilla Wars: Rangers on Risking It All

Who Murdered the Virunga Gorillas? (National Geographic Magazine)

Virunga Gorillas: Photo Gallery (National Geographic Magazine) 

Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS

The United Nations and an international coalition of zoos have declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla.

Announced last month, Year of the Gorilla (YoG) aims to unite the needs of both the largest living primate and the people who live in gorilla range states.

YoG "aims to boost conservation of humankind's closest relatives and their habitats by boosting the livelihoods and incomes of local people," according to a news release issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS

Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS

Endangered forest elephants are avoiding Central Africa's roadways at all costs, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Save the Elephants.

The animals associate roads with poaching, which is rampant in the Congo Basin, say the authors of the study published today in the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE).

"Forest elephants have adopted a siege mentality, forcing populations to become increasingly confined and isolated," the researchers say. "This in turn reduces these normally far-ranging animals' ability to find suitable habitat, thereby threatening long-term conservation efforts."