gorilla.cd

We have been sent some great photos from a reader of our blog who visited the mountain gorillas here back in 1994:

The pictures show the silverback Rugabo (above) with his family (below) only months before Rugabo was killed in an attack by poachers.

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As Pierre wrote in Monday’s blog, I have had the unfortunate task of recovering the body of the female gorilla Kidole from the Lulengo Family.

The Rangers at Bikenge Patrol Post had reported that a couple days before she had been separated from the rest of the group again. So I drove up to Jomba Patrol Post with our ICCN veterinarian Dr Arthur Kalonji and we entered the forest in the direction of where Kidole had last been spotted.

Kidole pictured in December 2008

On the way the Rangers told me that Kidole had actually been spotted with the solitary silverback known as Mareru (son of Rugabo and brother to Pili-Pili). Mareru was apparently accompanying Kidole wherever she went.

Mareru was impressive

When we arrived at the location we found Mareru in an agitated state. We approached cautiously and found a nest site. An immobile gorilla body was in one of the nests- it was Kidole. Mareru was being aggressive and prevented us from getting near her. He had been guarding over Kidole many hours after her death.

Kidole’s body

After a while we were able to drive the big silverback away and examined the body. It was very sad for us, as we knew her well during her eventful life, starting initially in the Rugendo group (in which she gave birth to Baseka), then in the Mapuwa group (she is Gourba’s mother), before finally migrating to the Lulengo group.

Kidole is carried to Jomba Patrol Post

We rigged up a harness with a bamboo pole and two men hoisted her up to carry her back to the patrol post. We handed over the body to the MGVP veterinarians, who conducted a thorough post-mortem.

The full results will take a while to come back, but their preliminary observations are that Kidole was an old female, possibly 40 years or older according to her teeth which were very worn. She was very thin and had probably not eaten for about 36-48 hours before her death. She had multiple patches of hair loss on her rear end, face, shoulders etc. She also had evidence of a chronic kidney disease with scaring of both kidneys.

After the post-mortem we took Kidole to Rumangabo and buried her in the mountain gorilla cemetery next to Safari from the Rugendo Group.

RIP KIDOLE

I am the bearer of bad news: Innocent has just called me from the field to tell me that Kidole in the Lulengo family has died from what appears to be natural causes. He was calling from Jomba patrol post and said that Rangers found her dead in her nest. I do not know any more details, but Innocent and the MGVP team are on their way back to Goma and will update us (in tomorrow’s blog post) with more details.

RIP KIDOLE

You may remember from this blog that in February she had gone missing following an interaction between silverbacks. Rangers found her shortly after and tracked her for several weeks on her own until she found and rejoined the Lulengo Group. Since then she seemed to be doing fine, until now…

Kidole was an old gorilla and it was not a total surprise that she passed away. However, for the Rangers who know each of the gorillas by name, it is a big personal loss, as well as a blow to the small population of this critically endangered species.

Kidole means “finger” in Swahili- she was named that because she is missing an index finger on her left hand. She had had an eventful life, starting initially in the Rugendo group (in which she gave birth to Baseka), then in the Mapuwa group (she is Gourba’s mother), before finally migrating to the Lulengo group.

I have just spoken to Dr Jacques from MGVP who visited Kidole the other day, the adult female from the Lulengo Group who went missing in late February and had a miscarriage. Dr Jacques was pleased to report that Kidole appears to have made a full recovery. She is eating normally, and her coat is shining and healthy. He even saw her climbing a tree to get at some tasty looking epiphytes.

These photos were taken by Dr Jacques. Top right is Lulengo himself, keeping an eye on Jacques. Jacques said he stayed with Kidole for about 45 minutes and was very pleased with her progress.

Dr Jacques said that the male Lulengo approached them a few times grunting, just checking them out.

So good news for Kidole and the gorillas.

I just got good news from Ranger Touriste who called me from the Bikenge Patrol Post. You may remember that the Rangers there were concerned for the female Kidole, who for the past 2 weeks had been living on her own in the forest following a miscarriage.

Well this morning they found her back with her family in the Lulengo Group. We are all very relieved and hope things will go back to normal for her.

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I have sent Ranger Sekibibi to Bikenge with a camera, so hopefully we will be posting new video of Kidole this weekend.

Kidole is still not reunited with the Lulengo family - and continues to roam the Gorilla Sector alone.

She is however recovering well from what we presume was a miscarriage 2 weeks ago and eating normally. She does not cover a lot of ground during the day which is fairly normal when a gorilla is alone. This is much like the case of Buhanga for example, the solitary Silverback who is usually found not far from the Gatovu patrol post.

Buhanga - never strays far from Gatovu patrol post

The Rangers at Bikenge continue to follow Kidole on a daily basis which is actually a lot of work for us and we are stretching our resources. So we hope that soon Kidole will be taken back by the Lulengo family, or actually be accepted by the Mapuwa family. Both families are close by. The Rugendo family is too far away at the moment, but could also move closer to Kidole. I see these 3 families as the most viable options.

Because Kidole is a female of reproductive age we believe that any of the above 3 families would accept her. It is much easier for females than solitary males, who as you know have to fight for their family.

This is the first case since I have been working for ICCN that a female has been effectively abandoned by a family. So it is also interesting for all of us to see how this will develop.

We hope that Kidole will soon be with a Gorilla family and will once again have the chance to have a baby.

After two days of searching in the forest, we today found the missing female from the Lulengo group. We found Kidole on her own in a patch of bamboo. She seems to be doing better than last time we saw her and was moving around much better, but she is still not 100%. We saw her eating a little, which is a good sign.

Dr Jacques from MGVP was with us and was able to observe her. We also had a look at the nest she made last night and there was no sign of blood. In the beginning of the week Rangers had found blood and other bits which made us think that she had a miscarriage. Dr Jacques says that it is normal for an animal to eat the placenta and fetus in the case of a miscarriage, which explains why we didn’t find them in the nest.

Dr Jacques with the Rangers

Kidole means “finger” in Swahili- she was named that because she is missing an index finger on her left hand. She has had an eventful life, starting initially in the Rugendo group (in which she gave birth to Baseka), then in the Mapuwa group (she is Gourba’s mother), before finally migrating to the Lulengo group.

The males from the Lulengo group are not far away and are looking for Kidole. I left a team of Rangers behind to keep a close eye on her until she is reunited with her family.

In the beginning of the week there was an interaction between the Lulengo group and the Mapuwa group. On the next day, Rangers noticed that Kidole, one of the females from the Lulengo group, was bleeding heavily, apparently resulting from an abortion. The MGVP vets were called, but by the time they arrived Kidole had disappeared.

This morning Innocent rushed to the Bikenge patrol post which is nearest to the area where she was last seen. He has mobilised three search parties consisting of Rangers and Dr Jacques- over the next several days they will combing the forest in search for Kidole.

I will let you know as soon as I hear anything.

Kidole pictured in 2007

Another great piece of news for you all! We have just seen and identified Lulengo and his family. You may remember that Lulengo, the Silverback, was last seen in August 2007 during the census and that at that time the family had 4 individuals, including Lulengo himself. He had managed to obtain a family after fighting with Pili-Pili, who of course is now in the Rugendo Family. Before August 2007 Lulengo had been missing since January 2007…

Lulengo - alive and well with his growing family

He constantly watches over them

Today the Lulengo family has 7 individuals - Lulengo himself, 4 females and 2 babies. We are also happy to report they are all in good health, and about 12km in from the patrol post at Bikenge.

This is one of the adult females in Lulengo’s family, called Bavanyuma, with her new baby who has yet to be named

So now, in terms of progress with the census, we have the Rugendo Family with 9 individuals (including 2 Silverbacks), the Humba Family with 10 individuals, the Kabirizi Family with 33 individuals (Kangugo and Gasusa still missing), and the solitary Karateka… That is 60 individuals officially identified to date since we started the census 4 weeks ago. We are making steady progress and hope to continue providing you with good news in the days to come!

This is Pierre. We have received news from our sources that tourists are once again crossing the border into the Congo to visit the gorillas in the Mikeno sector. Nkunda’s rebels are charging tourists to take them to see the Mapuwa and Lulengo groups of habituated gorillas.

Kanepo, Dunia, and Sebagabo from the Mapuwa Family

We are worried that the rebel “rangers” are not following the proper guidelines, such as observing a minimum distance of 7 meters to avoid disease transmission. We hear that last Friday a group of 20 tourists came, and the week before it was 22. Again, that is above the maximum limits allowed in legal tourism.

Bikenke

We assume that the people choosing to visit the gorillas this way either could not reserve a place to visit the gorillas in Rwanda, or decided they would prefer to pay less. We urge tourists to think twice before visiting the Congo gorillas at the moment, as their dollars will be going straight into the pocket of the rebels. Remember that these are the very same rebels who killed and ate two silverbacks last year.

Mambo and Dunia

As several of our regular readers have pointed out, the July edition of National Geographic magazine features a front cover story about the gorilla killings last year. You may remember that Mark Jenkins and Brent Stirton came to visit us in February. The article is also on their website, along with an interview with Diddy and Innocent that I recorded with them last month. There will also be a documentary called “Gorilla Murders” on the National Geographic Channel on the 1st July.

Everyone here hopes that all this coverage will renew international concern and interest in the preservation of Virunga National Park.