Lost Apes Of the Congo

摘要

Ron pontier was flying light and low above the northern., wilds of the Democratic Republic of Congo when he saw a dark shape racing between two patches of tropical forest. "It was huge," says Pontier, a missionary pilot. "It was black. The skin was kind of bouncing up and down on it." From its bulk and color, Pontier thought it was a buffalo until he circled down for another look. "I saw it again just before it went into the forest," he says. "It was an ape-and a big one." Not buffalo size, but big. What Pontier saw was a piece of a pri-matological puzzle, another splinter of anecdotal evidence for a mysterious ape with characteristics of gorillas and chimpan- zees, an animal that has scientists in a furious debate over what it might be.