Dean Jacobs
December 12, 2012
Sorry these posts are out of order. There’s a lot of stuff going on and not much time to get onto the computer to post!
Today we had the chance to hear Dean Jacobs speak. –and boy, we were blown away! If you have a moment, hit Dean’s site. Truly his journey is inspirational. www.deanjacobs.org
Have you heard of the 7 Wonders of the World? The Pyramids, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Lighthouse at Alexandria, to name three of them. Dean went seeking 7 other wonders. The wonder of sight, of taste, of hearing and smell. The wonders of touch, of laughter and of love. These are the 7 wonders of humanity. They have no price tag, no hype and no drama. But they are real, priceless and timeless. These wonders cannot be faked; they can only be experienced.
Since 2001 (when he quit his corporate job, sold his home and sought to answer the questions within his soul) he has traveled for 4 years and explored over 50 countries. Today he was speaking about his work with the Dian Fossey Institute and his travels to AFRICA to live amongst and study the Silver Back Gorilla!
He went into the jungles in Rwanda and spent some 18 months there studying the Silver Back Gorilla.
Silver Backs are called this because when a male gorilla turns 7, the hair on his back turns a shimmery silver. This only happens to the male.
Silver Backs reach about 6 ft tall when standing up straight and weigh on average about 450 lbs. They live on average 40 yrs. They live together in small communities called Groupings. Groupings average about 10-12 gorillas. There is only one male ALPHA within each grouping. The Alpha’s job is to always keep the Group safe –and make sure that any wandering other males do not try and come in and take over the group. Fro if that were to happen, all the young would be killed by the new Alpha. As he only has the interest in perpetuating his own DNA and lineage.
They groups are close knit and have remarkable ways of communicating (through a series of grunts and “cough-line” sounds) with one another. They play, groom, eat and have friendships that last for decades.
Gorillas are quite picky about things. They never sleep in the same place fro more than one night. They sleep up in trees in a bed of leaves, eat about 70 lbs of vegetation daily, relax by hanging between trees and always climb down to the ground to go to the bathroom.
Each gorilla is recorded by the Fossey Organization to track them from birth to death. Although Gorillas each have fingerprints unique to each of them, it is their face that is drawn out and used to identify them.
As you can see we truly enjoyed meeting Dean and hearing about his amazing adventures! We’re trying to get him to come to Rowayton Elementary School.
Think we’ll have Finny ask him, as they have forged a friendship.
Safe Travels!
JKLM
🙂
leo and finn go to south america! 