gorilla.cd

Gorillas are intelligent. Ask anyone who has spent time with them in the wild or as their caretaker. They not only appear to have human-like emotions, they also think, they plan, and they even work together on such things as…escaping from a walled enclosure with an electric fence on top.

We recently discovered two important things. 1) the electric fence around the Senkwekwe Orphan Gorilla enclosure was working, but not putting out the required voltage, and 2) our gorillas discovered this fact before we did.

Andre believes that 5-year old Ndeze is the culprit who figured out a way to get over the wall and taught the others how to do it. She placed a long bamboo pole that she found inside the enclosure against the wall and used it as a ladder to climb up. Although it didn’t reach the top, she could stand on the end of the pole and just touch the top of the wall to pull herself up. Since the electric fence at the top wasn’t a strong enough current to deter her, over she went, and the rest of the gorillas followed.

You might wonder why they want to escape. Run away? Climb new trees? No. They love their caretakers and the center is their home where they feel secure, but it seems they just want to see the other side of those walls. Curiosity maybe, but they don’t venture far and usually come right back to the main building where, like mischievous children, they give Andre and the other caretakers a hard time getting back into the enclosure.

Here are a few photos from their little adventure, and the caretakers efforts to return them to their home.

Andre scolded Ndeze like she was one of his own children. She reacted like she understood him.

Sugar water is a good incentive to come back inside.

Usually we are talking about the work of the rangers on this blog and for good reason, as they are the ones putting their lives at risk for the vital protection of this precious but vulnerable park. However, today we are going to focus on the women in the rangers’ lives, as behind every great man is a great woman. It is the support that these women give their husbands and children on a daily basis that help them go on to achieve great things in life.

Thursday March 8^th is International Women’s day and we would like to raise $600 to contribute towards the celebrations to recognise all the work that the women of ICCN have done to support our rangers over the years. There are about 160 women living within the 3 main stations of the park who will benefit from this contribution.

To the top-right of this post, you can choose the amount to donate in the drop-down menu below the barometer, and click the red “Donate” button which will take you to Paypal. You can pay there by various methods, including credit cards.

The money raised will be used to purchase supplies for the celebrations including beautiful traditional Congolese material that is used to make matching outfits for the women, who will wear them with pride and as a symbol of unity while singing and dancing together throughout the day.

Women all around the world face many hardships, but the women of Congo have seen more than their fair share in recent years, including events that have unfortunately led to DRCongo being labelled the rape capital of the world.

Despite these hardships I have been amazed by the grace that these women always carry themselves with. Like birds of paradise they fill the land with colour and beauty when wearing the bright fabrics synonymous with this country. They work extremely hard in their daily lives but are quick to laugh and sing with such intensity it can only be described as infectious. International Women’s day is a chance for the women of DRCongo to commemorate all the positive aspects of women, to celebrate what they have achieved and to show that they are unified together.

By donating something towards this event we can let the women of ICCN know that we are forever grateful for their vital support of our rangers of the past, present and no doubt in the future too.

We need your help to raise $1,750 to purchase 350 mosquito nets for the rangers of Virunga National Park. For just $5, you can help prevent a ranger from getting malaria, a disease that remains the number one cause of death in eastern Congo despite being largely preventable. Virunga’s rangers and their families face many unavoidable hardships, but malaria should not be at the top of the list because it is a threat we know how to fight.

Two years ago, The Thin Green Line Foundation generously helped fund a mosquito net program for Virunga’s ranger families, and the positive impact was enormous. Unfortunately, a mosquito net wears out over time and with each hole in a net comes a loss of protection. Many of these nets are used in the bush and get damaged quickly. We need to purchase a complete new stock of mosquito nets to replace the old ones. We are hoping to buy about 350 of these at $5 each, and we need these quickly but do not have the money. Our finances have become incredibly tight with fewer and fewer funds to draw from.

If 87 people each donate $20 this week, we can reach our target and have all the mosquito nets bought and delivered to the rangers next week. Please consider being one of those 87 people and help protect the rangers that dedicate their lives to protecting Virunga National Park.

To the top-right of this post, you can choose the amount to donate in the drop-down menu below the barometer, and click the red “Donate” button which will take you to Paypal. You can pay there by various methods, including credit cards.

Rangers use the mosquito nets both out in the field….

…and at the main stations. These nets were donated 2 years ago by The Thin Green Line. The sector wardens have been anxious to buy replacement nets as soon as possible.

I received a very disturbing call this morning from Rodrigue, the Sector warden for the Rwindi area.  An elephant was killed during the night by poachers on the main road to Goma. He immediately went in with a section of rangers and launched an investigation. The elephant was shot eight time, and its head removed.  The poachers left with the Ivory.  It’s too early to give any information on the scene of the crime but unfortunately, for various reasons, we can’t even use the hounds to pursue the poachers.  It’s deeply disturbing and very worrying for the future of our small elephant populations.  We’ve taken measures to secure the area and will be stepping up a number of measures in that area and elsewhere.

A few volcanologists took a trip to the erupting volcano from the 23-25th of January. They took many photos from a completely different angle: from the top of the first eruption site that began 6 November and ended the first week of December when a new eruption started nearby. Here are some of the photos taken from this trip by Richard Roscoe. You can visit his website HERE:

Lava flow from the volcano. Pilot Jon Cadd flew over the lava flow yesterday and described it like this:  “I followed the river of fire north. It was amazing and took my breath away at how fast it was flowing. No way to get away from it if it was coming toward you. Not just flowing.  It was churning and splashing and tumbling more like a waterfall than a river.  Very exciting to see.”

Fumarole deposits right of fissure on left image.

Fumarole in west flank.

Close-up of lapilli coated in fumarolic deposits.

Eruptive fissure west of primary crater complex

Rock coated with fumarole deposits

Fumarolic deposits with crater behind

View of secondary crater complex from flank of primary complex

Viewing active crater complex from primary one.

This is our new bloodhound kennel….

…and these are the happy bloodhound girls and Congohounds program manager Christian Shamavu.

This is exciting for us. Don’t go away, let me explain….

We started the Congohounds program about a year ago – the first ever in central Africa. The idea is that bloodhounds can help in our anti-poaching efforts as well as search and rescue, ultimately protecting and saving the lives of both animals and humans.

Marlene Zähner, one of the top bloodhound experts in the world, has volunteered her time as the project leader of Congohounds, training the dogs and handlers for the last year with the help of other volunteers from Germany, Ursula und Marcel Maierhofer, and Swen Busch. We are sincerely grateful for their gift of service to us! Here on the ground in Virunga, our amazing ranger, Christian Shamavu, heads up the Congohounds program.

The new night-house for the dogs

For a year the dogs have lived in a fenced-in area with two small wooden huts to sleep in. Everything else needed for the program has been spread out in various odds and ends places that we could find for office/storage/cooking, etc (we can’t get commercial dog food, so all food must be natural and cooked). Far from an ideal set-up!

Last year, a Swiss organization called ZAPA (Zürcher Tierschutz - Zurich Animal Protection) stepped in to fund the building of a proper kennel that includes an office, storage, cooking area, and night house for the dogs. It’s well-constructed, beautiful, useful, and a great new home for the bloodhounds. We are seriously grateful for this gift!

And that’s why we’re excited. Isn’t it lovely? Thank you ZAPA! Thank you Marlene, Marcel, Ursula, Swen, and all of you who have chosen to financially support the Congohounds program. If you would like to join the team of supporters, click HERE and see our monthly and one-time project possibilities, and join our Facebook Congohounds page.

Click here for the German website and German Facebook page.

Christian Shamavu’s office with windows that look both inside and outside.

The happy bloodhounds on the covered verandah, a practical place for the dogs during the torrential rains.

The new Tongo chimpanzee trek opened in January.

Our tourism development officer, Cai, could not wipe the huge smile off his face when he announced that the tourist numbers for January, about 350 visitors, were nearly the same as our 2011 high summer season months. Considering that January isn’t high season, this is fantastic.

Some possible reasons for the jump in numbers is that the word is getting out that we are the coolest national park in Africa (we’re not the slightest bit biased in saying this), that we have an erupting volcano you can get close to (and how many parks can claim that?), that we have a new awesome lodge for people to stay at in the park, and there’s a new chimpanzee trek available. Who wouldn’t want to come here?

On top of this, we received some excellent news (for us) that Rwanda is increasing the price of their gorilla treks to $750 per trek, a 50% increase in price. Since our treks are almost half the price ($400), we are hoping that people who want to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat will come here instead. We can’t guarantee our price won’t increase some, but we’ll most likely keep it down so it’s affordable and we can increase our visitor numbers. Another big reason to smile!

And one last comment on tourism: it’s good for the park, it’s good for conservation, it’s good for the gorillas, and good for the community. 30% of revenue from tourist permits goes toward community projects. This year we will have much more to spend, with several planned projects that include roads and improving water sources for communities surrounding the park.

Tongo chimp.