‘Gorillas destroy our crops and they are vicious animals’, the authors were told last December in Gabon, where, along with Professor Roger Short and Dr Richard Wrangham, they were investigating the status of gorillas and chimpanzees. Gorillas can be shot on sight, and both animals are killed for meat. Gabon people are predominantly rural, and because they are so dependent on the forests for food, it may be that the Government will preserve these, and with them the wildlife, despite impending large-scale development.