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Protecting the Mountain Gorillas of Virunga
Poached Baby Grauer’s Gorilla Comes to Virunga
Yesterday, we received a 9-month-old baby Grauer’s gorilla that had been poached from Kahuzi-Biega National Park, south of Lake Kivu. The Gorilla Doctors (MGVP) escorted the baby to our park headquarters where she will be quarantined and cared for at our lower enclosure, which is adjacent to the orphan mountain gorilla center.
The baby gorilla was taken from the forest sometime in early August and appears to be healthy, according to the Gorilla Doctors. She bonded quickly with Dr. Martin who held her for most of the trip to the park. When she became hungry, she ate bananas, but clearly wanted some mother’s milk, and would pull at Martin’s shirt where she thought her mother’s nipples should be, and even put her mouth on the shirt trying to suck. When a baby bottle with milk was produced, she seemed irritated with it, and shoved it away.
The security at the park headquarters and surrounding area has been assessed as stable by our security officers, and Virunga is only one of two places in eastern Congo with a facility to house gorillas. The baby will eventually move to the GRACE facility east of Butembo where orphaned Grauer’s gorillas are cared for, but in the meantime, we are fortunate to be involved in caring for this adorable baby gorilla.
The circumstances surrounding the poaching of the gorilla are not entirely clear. It appears that the FDLR rebel group may have first poached the gorilla from Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Members of the Raiya Mutomboki rebel group say they took it from the FDLR and later gave it to the director of a Congolese environmental organization who brought it to Kahuzi-Biega headquarters on Thursday of last week.
Our three orphaned mountain gorillas that live in the nearby enclosure discovered their new neighbor almost immediately, climbing the nearest tree to watch her for hours. Maisha pounded her chest several times to get the baby’s attention. The baby Grauer’s gorilla and our Mountain Gorillas are not allowed to have close contact as they could pass diseases to each other.
We will keep you posted on the welfare of this baby gorilla in the next few weeks.
Here are a few more photos of the baby gorilla:
Andre (on the left) spent the morning cleaning and disinfecting the building in the lower enclosure before the gorilla arrived, and must stay away from the baby so as not to pass on any germs or diseases.
The baby gorilla bonded quickly with veterinarian Martin with the Gorilla Doctors (MGVP).
The gorilla meets his new caretaker, Kakule, for the first time. Without any pressure, she walked right up to him and crawled into his arms.
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- Congo: Many Dead After Attack - New York Times
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12 Responses to “Poached Baby Grauer’s Gorilla Comes to Virunga”
What an adorable baby gorilla and so trusting! I have never heard of this type of gorilla before.
Grauer’s is another name for Eastern Lowland Gorillas, found exclusively in eastern Congo. Their numbers have dropped dramatically in the last 15 years. In 1995 their population was estimated at around 17,000 and now it is believed to be less than 8,000, and some estimate less than 4,000.
When you say poached, do they think her mother was killed? What about her family group?
Hi Georgina,
Poaching is the illegal killing or capturing of animals. We don’t know if the mother was killed, although it’s very likely as it is difficult to take a baby from it’s mother. The baby was “poached” meaning it was illegally captured and taking out of it’s natural habitat. It was also most likely taken to sell. The rangers don’t know which family group the baby gorilla was taken from.
Beautiful pictures!
Thanks for the Update LuAnne ~ I am doing my best to raise awareness to the poaching activities in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda ~ this is the website of the Animated Gorilla Film I am working on: http://www.galiwango.com
What a little sweetheart LuAnne….she’s def in the right place now. Good on all those who made moves to get her looked after. Bet she’ll soon take to the bottle….’good luck little one’.
Hi, Is Virunga open for tourists now?
Ashish, thanks for asking. I’m afraid we’re still closed. We can’t afford to put visitors at risk and because the gorilla sector is currently under M23 rebel control, we’re not in full control of security, which is a condition for resuming visits.
Really wanted to see Nyiragongo, hope the park opens up soon. Good luck to you guys
im doing a research a project on this topic and i was wondering what the Rangers are doing to protect against poachers?
[...] read more about how we got these two baby gorillas, click HERE for Isangi, and HERE for [...]