Rachel Hogan arrived in Cameroon on the 1st May 2001, planning to spend three months as a volunteer with cwaf. A 26 year old Birmingham girl with a lifelong fascination with gorillas, she took the unusual step of giving up her career and home before leaving the UK.
nkan, february 2003 |
shai, february 2003 |
"It was almost as if I knew I'd never come back," she explained. One month later, her subconscious proved right when she heard of a two week old gorilla named Nkan that cwaf was considering taking on. Rachel realised this was her chance to fulfil her dream. "Chris Mitchell, the founder of the charity, was planning to find a Cameroonian to bring up Nkan, because young gorillas need a long term carer. I instantly decided to stay in Cameroon indefinitely, and pleaded with Chris to let me hand rear Nkan," Rachel explained.
After a few days, Chris relented, and two days later Nkan arrived. Just two weeks old, he had no control over his arms and legs, and his eyes had not focused. He was carried in the palm of a vet's hand, and it seems everyone agreed the young gorilla's chances of survival were slim at best. "Chris scared me a bit, he just said 'Oh god, he really is small'. This along with the fact no gorilla this young had ever been hand reared before meant I was pretty worried. I'd moved into Chris's house and was taken into a bedroom and handed Nkan. After about five minutes, he clung on to me, and that's pretty much where he stayed for the next 18 months."
Rachel's social life was non-existent - she ate, slept and played with Nkan 24 hours a day, feeding him every hour at first. Her only respite was to take a quick shower while Nkan clung onto a worker wearing her jumper. For three days, the fear of rolling over and crushing Nkan meant no sleep. However, on the third day Nkan and Rachel finally bonded. "It was as if we'd realised we were both in this for the long haul," she explains.
The next few months were hard for both of them. Nkan suffered a bad case of pneumonia, which led to him being put onto antibiotics for almost six months. "I remember we actually had a Nkan drug-free party when he came off them," laughs Rachel. Several other illnesses plagued Nkan, including Shigella, a disease that attacks the immune system and is common and usually fatal in gorillas. "We thought we would lose him at least three times - it was incredibly hard for everyone, as we quite often just didn't know what to do, as gorillas this young had never been hand reared before." Rachel also suffered a crippling bout of Malaria just two months after Nkan's arrival. T hroughout the illness, the ever-present Nkan clung to her .
A month later, Nkan's personality began to shine through when he laughed for the first time (A gorilla laugh is startlingly similar to a human giggle), and soon after began to crawl. While still never straying more than a few feet away from Rachel, Nkan was finally showing some independence. "His personality was, even then, very strong. He's actually very shy, but once he gets to know you, he's a real handful - incredibly mischievous, and he will often casually kick you as he's passing or launch an all out play attack on you. If you watch him, you can also see it in his face when he's thinking of what chaos he can cause, it's almost as if he is grinning to himself."
However, it soon surfaced that there was a minor problem with Nkan's personality - he had no idea he was a gorilla. "Nkan had never been around other gorillas, and had no idea how he should act. He didn't know how to climb, what he could eat, or even how a gorilla plays. We put him with chimps initially, and he tolerated them, but he seemed to know that they weren't really the same as him," Rachel explains.
The problem was solved when around a year after Nkan arrived, Shai joined the family. He had been with another environmental project in Cameroon, but one that realised they had little experience of raising baby gorillas, while Rachel's success with Nkan was now well known in the country. So, Shai moved to Yaounde to join Rachel's extended gorilla family, which now also included two keepers, Fred & Appolinaire.
Shai was a year old when he arrived, and had spent much of his life in the forest with his family. However, hunters killed his family, but spared Shai as he was too small to eat.
"When they first met I was incredibly nervous. Nkan looked at Shai in a strange way, and realised this was one of his own. He just ran over and hugged Shai, taking us all by surprise."
Shai was extremely sick when he first arrived, but was soon well enough to begin the unusual task of teaching Nkan how to be a gorilla. "Shai basically taught him all he knows," explains Rachel.
"Nkan just didn't know how to behave, and by copying Shai he behaviour changed completely. The only thing he taught Shai was that in the end, he is the boss..."
Having two keepers now meant Shai and Nkan could have 24 hour care without completely exhausting their human mother. "Fred and Apollinaire were a godsend, although it was tough at first as it took a long time before the animals really bonded with them, and even now if they are sick it's me they come to, not the keepers."
Now that Shai and Nkan were happy and growing older, there was much discussion over their future, and their eventual home. Thankfully, it was an easy decision. Mefou National Park already housed one group of six gorillas, housed in a large electrified enclosure. Putting Shai and Nkan into this enclosure, or a new enclosure, would offer the perfect location for two young gorillas to prosper. So, it was decided - Shai and Nkan would finally return to the forests of Cameroon.
part two - going home is coming soon!
