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It is with great joy that we can announce the birth of two new mountain gorilla babies discovered by our rangers in the last few days of December. The babies were born into two different gorilla familes: the Kabirizi and the Mapuwa families. What a great way to end the 2011 year!

The Mapuwa family is now at 17 members and the Kabirizi family, which has experienced both births and deaths this year, has 33 members, our largest family.

This is the 2nd baby for mother Maheshe of the Kabirizi family. Her first baby died in April of 2010 from natural causes.

Let’s hope that 2012 will be a good year of growth for all our mountain gorilla families.

Mother Maheshe and her newborn baby - the last of 2011.

By Innocent

Mbusa, the baby of mother Rubiga of the Kabirizi mountain gorilla family.

In the last few weeks, the rangers and I have been working hard to do a complete assessment of our six habituated gorilla families.  We included six new rangers in the survey process for training purposes as many  will be deployed in the gorilla sector eventually.

Some gorilla families are much easier to access than others, with the Kabirizi family the most difficult due to its very large size. One visit doesn’t always allow you the opportunity to see the whole family as they can be hiding in the bushes or you cannot get a full face view in order to identify the gorilla by its nose print.

We have, however, made some clear calculations and have discovered some new movements among the Kabirizi family.

Tumaini with baby Shabani of the Kabirizi Family.

Kabirizi Family
This family is our largest, but has shrunk a bit recently. One blackback, Jeshi, died in a fight, and two others appear to have migrated to a non-habituated gorilla group. This brings the family down from 35 to 32. It is now made up of 1 silverback, 1 blackback, 11 adult females, 4 sub-adults, 5 juveniles, and 10 babies. Silverback Kabirizi also showed injuries to his left jaw, left arm, and left foot from an unknown interaction with another gorilla.

Silverback Kabirizi showed injuries to his jaw, arm, and foot. A deep gash can be seen across his face.

Here is a chart on four families from this recent survey. The codes refer to:
SB – Silverback; BB – Blackback; ADF – Adult Female; Sub – Sub Adult; Juv – Juvenile; Baby - Baby

We were able to take many photographs, and will post some here and more in a later blog post.

Kongomani from the Rugendo family. No, this is not a vicious snarl. It’s simply a yawn.

The new rangers are trained in monitoring gorillas in the Mikeno gorilla sector.

We are happy to announce the birth of a new baby for the Humba gorilla family, born on the 7th of August. This is the first baby for 9 year-old mother Kanyalire, a female who migrated from the Kabirizi family to Humba family about one year ago.

Kanyalire’s history includes the death of her mother, Macibiri, murdered in the July 2007 massacre that tragically took the lives of seven critically endangered mountain gorillas, including silverback Senkwekwe of the Rugendo family.

With this new birth, the Humba family now has 16 members.

If you would like to support the on-going effort of our rangers to monitor and protect these critically endangered mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park, you can begin by joining the Guard a Gorilla program and choose a gorilla to guard through your monthly donations. Alternatively, you can join the Protect the Park program by donating $25 monthly for the patrols and anti-poaching units for a piece of the Mikeno Sector.  Protecting the mountain gorillas is costly both financially and for the lives of our rangers. We can’t do it without your help.

A charcoal kiln is destroyed during a Virunga National Park operation this week.

Last weekend we began an operation in Virunga National Park to find and destroy FDLR Rwandan militia charcoal kilns, and end the growing business that has been causing the destruction of park forests and the death of one ranger.

Two groups of 75 each searched separate areas for five days, finding in total three FDLR camps and 45 charcoal kilns which we destroyed. In the camps, bullets and marijuana were left behind when the militia soldiers fled.

I went on the patrols with the rangers and took photos of what we found.

The rangers and a select group of Congolese soldiers gathered for instructions before heading out on patrol.

A FDLR camp was found with shelters made from banana leaves to hide from ranger patrols. Read the full story »

Discovering an illegal charcoal kiln covered with dirt.

Last week on one of our patrols in the Kibumba area, the rangers found not only a charcoal kiln, but also a lot of marijuana plants. Both are illegal inside the park. The charcoal is often made or controlled by the FDLR (Rwandan militia). The charcoal is produced by cutting down wood from the forest, then slowly burning it for 6 days inside a kiln made of wood and covered with dirt. The charcoal is then sold in Goma, or traded for guns and bullets. The people who make the kilns leave during the time it is burning. Sometimes we catch them, sometimes not. When we find these charcoal kilns, we remove the dirt and then must burn the whole kiln to destroy it. It usually burns completely in about an hour. Read the full story »

A Rugendo baby born to Lubutu and Bukima bring the family members to six.

Virunga National Park rangers discovered two baby gorillas born into the Rugendo and Humba gorilla families. This is the first baby to survive for mother Lubutu and father Bukima in the Rugendo family, bringing the small group to six members. The new Humba baby makes 15 for the family.

Lubutu is the only female in the Rugendo family. Her last baby died after only two days. We have worked hard to protect all of our gorillas, and are especially happy to see a new baby in this family. We feel like celebrating. Read the full story »

Last week, the Rugendo gorilla family decided to pay a visit to the Bukima Ranger Station where gorilla treks begin. They wandered right through our ranger headquarters, down a path taken by tourists to the tented camp, wandered around the camp for a while, went out into the plowed dirt agricultural field and then into the nearby forest. All the while, 8 Hugos (locals who work with rangers) rang bells and beat drums in an attempt to force them back into the forest. Innocent explains: Read the full story »

We are delighted to tell you that Tumaini from the Kabirizi family has given birth.

Tumaini’s playful and affectionate exterior belies the difficulty of living in Virunga’s forests for twelve of the park’s most difficult years. But we know from the Rangers that her story bears the scars: she not only lost her mother Leseijina but also her baby Nsekanabo to poachers. Neither gorilla was the hunters’ intended prey – they almost never are – just collateral damage in the scramble for food and profit. But such deaths are no less horrific for being unintended. When Nsekanabo was injured in a trap, Tumaini held the tiny gorilla for three days. Seeing that he was badly wounded, the Rangers alerted the Vets. They intervened - sedating the mother and removing the baby - but they couldn’t save him. The infant died and was buried at the cemetery in Rumangabo. Read the full story »

In general Mountain Gorillas are calm and gentle creatures that live quietly in supportive family groups, but the lives of the males of the species are inevitably and violently disrupted by the rites of passage associated with becoming an adult. Some of the gorillas living in the Mikeno Sector are facing this challenge right now.

Baseka and Kongomani from the Rugendo Family, Bageni and Jeshi from the Kabirizi Family, and Nyakamwe from the Humba Family, were all born around 12 years ago. Some of their lives have been scarred by human violence, but for the most part they have lived happily in the forest, in the company and under the protection of their families.

But not even their families can save these young animals from their biological destiny.

Read the full story »

Some of you might think that Ndeze and Ndekazi are cute. You’re wrong. They’re extremely naughty.  Yesterday, Dr Eddy was with them and took these photos.  The carers were momentarily outside the enclosure, and Ndeze and Ndekazi wanted to join them.

A cunning plan

Read the full story »