PAPERBACK Free Resources |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 1
OCR for page 2
Introduction
It's a Wild Life
In the late 1970s, the number of mountain gorillas in Africa
had dropped dangerously low. So low, in fact, that they were
about to disappear altogether. Amy Vedder wanted to save them.
Fortunately, she was too young and too naive to think she
couldn't do it. Amy is a wildlife biologist--she studies what makes
animals tick. She went to Africa in 1978 intent on learning enough
about mountain gorillas to keep them from becoming extinct.
Not only did Amy help save the gorillas, she had the
adventure of a lifetime. She even became an honorary member
of a gorilla family!
Amy also learned a lot about herself and her desire to protect
wild animals from danger. Since then she has traveled around the
world helping wildlife. One month she might be in Mongolia,
learning how to protect endangered gazelles. The next month
might find her closer to home, observing recovered wolves in
Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park. Back in New York, she
helps city kids visiting the Bronx Zoo learn about threatened
wildlife and the need for conservation.
Thanks to Amy's hard work, many animal populations have
grown stronger. Their habitats have become protected parks--
and that makes Amy feel good.
How did Amy Vedder get into the business of saving wildlife?
Simple: She followed her instincts, and they led her to science.
ix
OCR for page 3
How did Amy
get into the business of
saving wildlife?
Simple:
She followed her instincts,
and they led her to
science.
OCR for page 4
1
CLOSE ENCOUNTER
A bone-chilling rain poured over Amy Vedder as she
huddled on the forest floor, surprised by what had just
happened. Perched under her arm sat a four-year-old
mountain gorilla named Pablo. All his life Pablo had turned to Mountain gorilla
his mother for shelter from stormy weather. Now, abandoned, Pablo (above) was
four years old when
he seemed to have decided that Amy--the white ape in a he tried to "adopt"
raincoat--would be a fitting stand-in mother. wildlife biologist Amy
Just moments earlier Amy had noticed that Pablo was acting Vedder (opposite) in
Rwanda, Central
strange. He was walking toward her with his chin lowered. This Africa, in 1978. Amy's
was not his usual "run by and give her a kick" sort of way. mission there was to
What's he up to? she thought. Pablo doesn't usually come near unless help Pablo and his
fellow mountain
he's trying to get me to play. gorillas survive.
She stopped scribbling notes and waited for Pablo to give her
a clue. He inched closer. Then Pablo tucked his head under Amy's
arm and snuggled close.
~An Unlikely Pair
It was a move she had seen Pablo pull only on his mother. Amy's
shelter must have looked meager compared with the mother
gorilla's massive limb and its heavy covering of hair. But Pablo
1
OCR for page 5
didn't seem to mind. Glued to Amy's side, he looked grateful for
AIN whatever warmth she could offer. Amy's heart swelled.
She was thrilled by the idea of being accepted by a gorilla. Yet
she knew there was no way she could fill in as Pablo's mother.
MOUNT
After all, she's a human and he's an ape. Amy knew she couldn't be
there for Pablo day and night. Next she considered the impact on
the gorillas' lives if she took Pablo under her wing--and the reason
she was sitting in the middle of a Central African rain forest in the
GORILLA
first place. Amy was trying to crack a mystery: What would it take
to keep these mountain gorillas alive?
Crouched with Pablo in the pouring rain, the biologist in Amy
reasoned that his mother surely knew what she was doing when
she left her four-year-old son behind the
She was thrilled by the idea of day before to join another gorilla group.
being accepted by a gorilla. Pablo is old enough to fend for himself, Amy
Yet she knew there was no way thought. If he gets into trouble, the other
she could fill in as Pablo's mother. gorillas in his group will probably come to
his rescue.
No matter what happened, Amy decided, Pablo simply had
to climb out from under her arm and get on with his life as a
gorilla. With a brief farewell squeeze, Amy pushed Pablo away.
~Dad to the Rescue
Over the next few days, Amy watched--and worried--as none of
the older female gorillas offered Pablo any warmth. With his crossed
eyes and crooked grin, the little gorilla approached Amy again and
again, only to find her arms clamped uninvitingly at her sides.
Then a surprise: When dark clouds descended and showered rain
on the jungle, Amy saw Beethoven, the kinglike male silverback in
the group, shelter Pablo beneath his hulking chest. Every night after
that, when Beethoven had finished pulling up plant stems, vines,
and leaves and shaping them into a warm, dish-shaped nest, he
allowed Pablo to make a crude nest of his own nearby.
Mature silverback males--named for the silvery hair that grows
on their backsides as they age--reign supreme in a gorilla group.
2
OCR for page 6
Mountain gorillas like
Beethoven have the
perfect form--a sphere
covered by shaggy hair--
for living in their cold,
wet environment. With
its arms crossed and its
shoulders hunched, a
mountain gorilla can
wait out a storm for
several hours.
They father most of the offspring, but they generally leave child-
rearing to the mothers. Pablo was Beethoven's exception.
Amy took great pleasure in watching this bonding between sil-
verback and son. Such a rare event was proof that she had made
the right decision to send Pablo packing. Still, she couldn't help
wondering what the future held for him. Amy couldn't imagine
him as a mature adult, much less a powerful leader like Beethoven.
All she could hope was that Pablo would survive.
CLOSE ENCOUNTER 3
Representative terms from entire chapter:
mountain gorilla
