I watched a Nat Geo special on DIan Fossey last night. I had not seen much about her for years since her death. While the intent of the program was to discuss circumstances leading up to her death. There was a lot of footage of her interaction with the mountain gorillas. It occurred to me, watching her go from barely being able to get close, to sitting there playing with the young ones, that her approach has a lot of merit. . Fast forward to my own experiences and what little I have learned. Some of what I have done is I have not reported. Some of you may have guessed but I guess I will still hold back. Still considering a book but I simply need more material. What she learned is that she always had to be submissive. She had to approach them literally crawling because if she stood up, they perceived it as a challenge and got a bluff charge response. If she was submissive, tentative, and even clowned around as if she was the biggest klutz in the world, they would watch her out of interest and let her get closer and closer. She acted her way into their midst. I know BF is a different critter. But experience after experience has shown me that they have similar behaviors. Urinate in their presence and they will react. Twice I have been bluff charged for doing just that. I suspect they thought I was marking territory. Dian became the world expert on the species. Before her little was known about them. She plunked herself right in the middle of there territory and stayed there for years in her camp in their territory. . Somehow I think we have to do something similar with BF. The Tarzan springs incident points to that as a valid tactic. It probably takes a female or a small group with a female included to pull it off. She brought men in but she had paved the way. I was surprised to see one of the scientists, who appears with Meldrum, on some of the BF documentaries, was there for a time in her camp. When we look at some of the more famous BF hunters, especially of the past, they came dressed and equipped like they were on an elephant hunt. Many armed appropriately. Some of these have never had contact. Dian had guns but it was to protect her from the poachers who ultimately killed her by hacking her to death with machetes. . Even that should be considered a warning for BF field researchers. If you find a tribe of BF in private timber company forest, you might be as unpopular as Dian was with the poachers. With millions of dollars of timber at stake, it could be very dangerous to expose BF to the world. Just some thoughts I wanted to share before I forgot about it.