Encountering gorillas

Few animals have stirred as much dread and wonder in people as the gorilla, the largest ape on Earth. James L. Newman, who has spent a lifetime studying Africa, traces the long and tangled relationship between these animals and people, starting from the first recorded encounters.

Rather than presenting a single chronological account, Newman organizes the story around four threads: discovery, exploitation, understanding, and survival. Each shows a different side of how humans have approached gorillas over the centuries.

The book also examines the people who shaped that relationship, including adventurers, opportunists, writers, and scientists. Gorillas themselves appear as well, both real individuals such as Gargantua and Koko and imaginary ones like King Kong and Mighty Joe Young.

The wild population has fallen sharply over the past hundred years because of habitat loss, disease, and poaching, and its future remains unclear. Gorillas in zoos and sanctuaries now live with far more security than before. Newman considers how culture and science have both warped and sharpened our picture of these apes, and what our growing control over their fate means for them.