170 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



to attacks on man. The forest is so dense, and the animal so shy, 

 that it is extremely difficult for the hunter to get sight of it. Thus 

 the Gorilla seems fairly well protected. Bands numbering up to more 

 than 20 individuals are reported. (Ramecourt, 1936, pp. 217-247.) 

 Raven (1936a, 19366) gives a most interesting and detailed 

 account of hunting Gorillas during more than a year spent at va- 

 rious places in southern Cameroons. The natives here are very keen 

 to eat Gorilla meat, being generally faced with a deficiency of 

 meat in their diet. A missionary reported many of the animals at 

 Djaposten, in southeastern Cameroons, where "in one morning's 

 walk of perhaps two hours he had counted more than 100 gorilla 

 beds." Although Raven himself found the animals quite common in 

 this region, it was extremely difficult to obtain a good view of them 

 in the dense forest, and only three adults were collected during his 

 entire sojourn, despite assiduous hunting. Raven writes further 

 (19366, pp. 529-530) : 



For centuries past the gorillas and natives have been competitors. As the 

 native populuation increased, new villages would be formed and more 

 clearings made. Then epidemics would occur, killing off great numbers of 

 natives, and their gardens would be neglected to run into second growth. 

 The gorillas, with a constitution so nearly like that of man that they can 

 find more food in human plantations than in the virgin forest, would move 

 into these deserted clearings. There with an abundance of food they throve 

 and congregated, to such an extent eventually that if only a few natives 

 remained they were actually driven out because of their inability to protect 

 their crops against the gorillas. But with the advent of the white men's 

 government, with the distribution of firearms among the natives, preventive 

 medicine and the treatment for epidemic and infective diseases, man has the 

 upper hand at present in this age-long struggle. 



"Mr. Raven had opportunity to witness the unfortunate effect, 

 so far as the protection of the gorilla was concerned, of the demand 

 for gorilla skulls on the part of scientists, to such a degree that 

 white men as well as natives had in the past often done a profitable 

 business in killing the animals and selling their skulls. The result 

 had been a rapid decrease in the gorilla population, so that Mr. 

 Raven, although by his record known to be a hunter and collector 

 of the first rank, was compelled to hunt week after week in a des- 

 perate effort to come up with the nervous survivors of the race in 

 this district. . . . 



"Mr. Raven's experience leads him to believe that ... the gorilla 

 is being rapidly exterminated in many localities." (Gregory, in 

 Raven, 19366, p. 540.) 



It is doubtful if the protective laws have stopped the killing of 

 Gorillas by natives to any extent. Most of the museum specimens of 

 skulls, etc., are from native-killed animals and have been turned 



