The silverback's back - in this case, possibly the broadest back on record. Video No.50 in the #BrightenYourDay series, to give you a lift in #Covid19 #lockdown, gives you a rear-view of someone who may be the largest primate on earth, an adult male Grauer's Gorilla known as Chimanuka, a resident of Kahuzi Biega National Park​ in the #DRC, Democratic Republic of #Congo.

#Chimanuka is the largest known member of the largest sub-species of #gorilla, also known as the Eastern Lowland Gorilla, and as gorillas are the largest kind of primate (apart from one or two huge humans), he is quite an impressive guy. Normally people film faces, but on this occasion - during the UN Year of the Gorilla in 2009 - Chimanuka was feeding with his back to me with his family scattered in the thickets beyond. I was fascinated by the movement of muscles beneath the skin of his scalp as he ate, and by how similar the anatomy of his back and shoulder blades is to that of humans. And yet there are obvious differences too - comparative anatomy that gripped the imagination of Victorian scientists who first described gorillas around the same time that #Darwin published his theory of evolution by #naturalselection.

At 1 minute and 7 seconds, you'll hear me give a BV, or belch vocalisation (so called because early observers thought they were hearing belches, until they realised these sounds are low contact calls to reassure members of the group that all is well). After my BV, Chimanuka listens for a moment, then replies! Such moments of mutual understanding are immensely rewarding to a visiting naturalist, and the use of this reassuring vocalisation - pioneered by #DianFossey - has been central to the success of habituating gorillas to human observers, whether for research, monitoring or tourism. Since March 2020, however, ape tourism has been suspended across Africa and SE Asia, and observations have been reduced to the minimum necessary for checking on the well-being and safety of the habituated apes.

Not only are all #apes at risk from infection by Covid-19 (though no cases have yet been confirmed thanks to the precautions taken), the lack of tourist revenues means that funding for conservation activities now depends on charities such as those that support gorillas, listed here: https://4apes.com/species/gorilla
Those active in and around Kahuzi-Biega include The Gorilla Organization​, Born Free Foundation​, Pole Pole Foundation​, Wildlife Conservation Society​, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International​, Gorilla Doctors​, Primate Expertise​, Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe e.V.​ and Strong Roots​