Notes from the Field

After having gone missing for three days, dominant silverback Inshuti was located today by the Fossey Fund field staff. A life-altering series of interactions with lone silverback Giraneza last week left him with severe injuries and minus two of his females.  Still traveling with Inshuti is 31-year-old female Shangaza, her offspring: 3-year-old Ngwino, and 2-year-old Akarusho (whose mother, Taraja, left to join Giraneza).

Karisoke director Felix Ndagijimana trekked to Giraneza’s newly formed gorilla group today to assess the group and the trackers assigned to it. Ndagijimana reports that Giraneza is still establishing his power over the females through displays and strut stances. Additionally, he reported that both females in the group, Taraja and Nyandwi, solicited copulation with the silverback and Giraneza was observed copulating with Taraja on one occasion.

“Even though the group is doing fine, it is clear from Giraneza’s power displays that they are still in a transitional phase” says Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio. Karisoke has now established a team of trackers specifically for Giraneza’s group, after an initial team of temporary staff was assembled to meet the new group's needs.

Gwiza still seems to be ranging outside of our tracker’s patrol areas and has yet to be located after his intense interaction with Ugenda’s group last Wednesday, when the 24-year-old lone silverback sustained severe injuries. Just because the field staff has not located the bachelor does not necessarily mean that he is critically wounded, but it could be some time before Gwiza is strong enough to attempt another interaction and make an appearance within a Karisoke research group.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Mother mountain gorilla Umusatsi finally rejoined her group again today, with her young son Rwema. They had been out of the group and not located since Feb. 2. However, they have engaged in this behavior before, so we were not surprised this time. Group silverbacks Kirahure and Vuba made frequent displays at Umusatsi upon her return.

Our trackers and anti-poachers are still finding a lot of snares. Today 10 snares were found in the core area where the gorilla groups we monitor range. Four of these were found by Bwenge's group trackers and six by the anti-poaching patrol. Yesterday eight snares were found in the same area.

Veronica

Today a severe interaction occurred between lone silverback Gwiza and Ugenda’s group.

Gwiza silently approached the group at 12:40. As soon as dominant Ugenda saw the intruder he literally jumped on him and strongly bit him. Several other individuals (including the second silverback Wageni, females and juveniles) supported Ugenda and all of them together piled onto Gwiza, who was screaming.

Gwiza had no choice but to run away. He was severely injured as result of the aggression and as he ran he left a long and abundant blood trail behind.

Field Operation Coordinator Jean Damascene Hategekimana (“Fundi”) was there and observed and documented the scene closely. He also tried to follow Gwiza for a while but the lone silverback was moving too fast.

We had not  seen Gwiza since the multi-day interaction that he had with Titus’ group, which ended on Dec. 1.

Veronica

Today in the newly formed group led by silverback Giraneza, our trackers noted female Nyandwi staying very close and eventually observed the two copulating. Giraneza is still in the stage of showing his "power" to his two females, which includes making displays and also showing some physical aggression.

Meanwhile, silverback Inshuti is doing well with his greatly reduced group. Young Akarusho remains in physical contact with him, and female Shangaza and her infant are close by. The weather was very cold so the group rested all day. 

A veterinary observation on Friday by the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (with head field veterinarian Dr. Jean Felix Kinani) reported that Inshuti's wounds are healing OK, although one wound behind his ear is subject to re-opening due to its position.

Unfortunately, for the third day in a row, our trackers have not been able to locate group Urugamba, even with three teams searching for them.

Veronica

As of Sunday morning, Feb. 12., it seems we have an extra mountain gorilla group to track at the Karisoke Research Center -- that of formerly lone silverback Giraneza and two females he gained from silverback Inshuti (see previous blogs for details on this).  At the same time, this morning missing female Shangaza and her offspring re-joined Inshuti, so he still has a group of his own, though much reduced in size.

Both groups seem fine and healthy, and Inshuti's wounds, a result of fights with lone silverbacks in recent days, seem to be healing OK.

Perhaps almost as complicated as all these changes among the gorillas in recent days is that we now have to cope with the logistics of forming an extra tracker team to do the daily monitoring of the new group Giraneza. This requires hiring temporary staff and increasing the rotation of current tracker staff.

Also requiring exta attention right now are the disappearance of female Umusatsi and her infant Rwema again (she has left and re-joined her group before) and our not being able to locate group Urugamba today. Each time such things occur, we have to form extra teams or increase our team sizes to do the extra searching....

More details to come!

Veronica

Infant Akarusho joined silverback Inshuti this morning. The infant is fine but obviously distressed, after a night spent alone. He cried when he saw Inshuti and from that time he was very close to him for the whole day. Inshuti is still dealing with his wounds (from attacks by lone silverbacks) but he moves and feeds abundantly. There is a large wound on his head.

"Lone" silverback Giraneza is still with females Taraja and Nyandwi. We reached them late this morning after a long time tracking. Following their traces from yesterday, we found two interaction sites and lone silverback Turatsinze by himself, 300 meters down Bikereri hill, while Giraneza and the females were up top. 

Giraneza is clearly interested in Taraja, as he was making frequent sexual vocalizations and looking at her everytime she moved. Giraneza displayed twice to her. Nyandwi was following the two. In general the small group seemed to be doing fine and started moving downhill. (Inshuti is also on the bottom of Bikereri, about 1 kilometer away.)

Female Shangaza and her infant Ngwino were still not found today. Tomorrow the anti-poaching team will try again to find them. We really hope they will be with Inshuti, which is the safest place for them at the moment.

Veronica

Today we found silverback Inshuti. He was alone and appeared weak. He was moving slowly but feeding abundantly, in the Tamu area on the bottom of Bikereri hill.

One kilometer away on the slope of the hill were the lone silverback Giraneza with female Nyandwi, the same as yesterday. But surprisingly, they were not alone! The lone silverback Turatsinze was there too, with female Taraja and her infant Akarusho (who will turn 3 in May).

Trackers were observing the interaction. There was a big fight between Giraneza and Turatsinze. Soon after the fight, female Taraja moved to Giraneza, while infant Akarusho moved alone and was not seen  for the rest of the day. In addition, a third lone silverback was displaying at 400 meters from that site.

When the researchers arrived at the interaction site, Giraneza was with Taraja and Nyandwi. He was making frequent hooting vocalizations and the females were feeding. At that time Turatsinze was 200 meters away, following Giraneza. Two fresh snares were removed from a site very close to Giraneza and the females.

Female Shangaza and her 3-year-old infant Ngwino were not found today. They are the only remaining individuals from Inshuti’s group still dispersed.

Tomorrow,  the Karisoke Research Center's anti-poaching team will support the gorilla tracking teams. We will follow the situation of Giraneza, Nyandwi and Taraja with a large team of trackers in case the two females have separated; visit Inshuti; and look for Shangaza, Ngwino and Akarusho. In addition, veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project will visit Inshuti on Friday to check on how well he is healing from the wounds he suffered from the lone silverbacks last week.

Today it looked like this may be the end of Inshuti’s group and the beginning of another. But all can still change! It is clearly a situation to monitor attentively, while avoiding any further stress to the gorillas.
 
Veronica

Nyandwi, one of the females of Inshuti’s group, was found today with the lone silverback Giraneza, one of the lone silverbacks that interacted with the group on Feb. 2. The two gorillas seemed fine but they ran away from trackers, so it was not possible to get a good observation of their activities/behavior. Nyandwi is a young female (almost 9 years old) born in Pablo’s group. She transferred to Inshuti’s group on Aug. 21, 2011.Tomorrow we will try to approach them again.

The rest of Inshuti’s group has not been found yet (see previous blog). Now we think that the reason they disappeared is because of an interaction with Giraneza and the subsequent transfer of Nyandwi. Tomorrow we will continue the search for this group, aided by temporary staff, Karisoke anti-poaching staff, and RDB (Rwanda park authority) staff supporting the effort.

Veronica

The Karisoke research gorilla group that has been hassled for weeks now by various lone silverbacks has been reported by field staff to be missing for the third day in a row. Inshuti’s group was last located on Thursday, Feb. 2.  Two patrol teams, with the support of the anti-poaching rangers, were dispatched to search for the missing group Saturday, Sunday and Monday, but unfortunately they were unable to find a trace of them. Tomorrow, the teams will thoroughly comb the five Basumba hills where Inshuti’s group normally ranges.

The Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center staff is extremely concerned about the group’s health and safety after the dramatic sequence of lone silverback interactions that has stressed the group recently. It is likely that another lone silverback interacted with the group sometime Thursday evening, pushing them into an area where they do not normally range. The field staff hopes to find the group tomorrow, with the members intact and free of injuries.

Also missing are female Umusatsi and her offspring, Rwema (from Kuryama’s group). The pair has been missing since Friday. Due to limited staff, the decision has been made to prioritize the search for Inshuti’s group. Inshuti has several serious injuries that he sustained from an attack by two lone silverbacks 11 days ago. The silverback must be located so staff can continue to monitor his condition.

Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio says "this is not the first time that Umusatsi has spent several days traveling alone with her son. She disappeared last November, but was found three weeks later in good condition."

Field Data Coordinator John Ndayambaje phoned into the Karisoke Research Center this afternoon to report that 16 snares were found and destroyed by anti-poaching rangers today. A Congolese man suspected of laying the traps was also discovered in the forest. The man was arrested and is currently being escorted down out of Volcanoes National Park to the police station in Kinigi. More to come soon.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

The lone silverback drama involving Inshuti and his group has continued on through the end of this week, reports the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center field staff. The dominant silverback truly cannot catch a break from the lone males ranging in the forest tenaciously seeking out females to steal. Yesterday, Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, PhD. and research assistant Samedi Muyco  witnessed an interaction that lasted from early morning to late afternoon and had the females of the group shaking with fear. This particular interaction involved Giraneza, an impressive lone silverback who split from Pablo’s group four years ago when he was just 13 years old.

But Giraneza wasn’t the only lone silverback threatening Inshuti’s group on Thursday. Also on the trail was Tuyizere, the lone male who has been making frequent appearances in the Karisoke-monitored groups throughout the last several months. When the field team arrived, Tuyizere was interacting with the group, but was quickly deterred by the team’s presence and lingered about 100 meters from the rest of the gorillas for the duration of the afternoon. Giraneza more than made up for Tuyizere’s reluctance with a constant onslaught of displays toward the group leader. The mammoth Inshuti responded with intimidating displays of his own and charged Giraneza multiple times throughout the data collection period.

Young female Nyandwe “was very interested in going with Giraneza” said Eckardt. "She was frequently looking at the lone silverback. Inshuti had the hardest time to move her up and away” from the intruder. Eckardt reported that the group leader was working hard to move his females higher up the mountain for most of the day, but Nyandwe took her time and was noticeably lagging behind. Eckardt observed one instance where Nyandwe was keeping an eye on both males. When she saw that Inshuti had moved higher up with the rest of the group, she started making her move towards Giraneza. But, Inshuti caught her and moved quickly back down to guard his female. Nyandwe feigned disinterest in the lone silverback and followed Inshuti back up to the group. And it wasn’t only Nyandwe that had an eye for Giraneza. Female Taraja was also very interested in going with him, but with her young offspring still in tow, she likely reasoned it wasn’t a good idea to attempt to transfer at this time.

Field Data Coordinator John Ndayambaje reported that Inshuti’s group was peaceful this afternoon and no lone silverbacks were found on their trail. Hopefully this will mark an end to the incessant intruders and Inshuti will have time to heal from his wounds.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Dominant silverback Isabukuru fought Kubaha Monday, reported Karisoke Research Assistant Jean Paul Hirwa. The researcher noticed that Isabukuru was clearly uncomfortable with Kubaha’s presence yesterday morning when the field staff arrived at the group, and the dominant male was keeping a close eye on the beta male. Kubaha lingered about 10 meters from the group for a short while before Isabukuru confronted him.

When Isabukuru approached Kubaha, the beta male “pig grunted” towards him in warning, but Isabukuru advanced on him, initiating a short bout of “kick-hits." It was clear that Isabukuru had “defeated” Kubaha when the dominant silverback had him pinned to the ground screaming, with Kubaha assuming a cowering posture. Kubaha attempted to make his escape, but Isabukuru held him down, mouth open wide and teeth poised above his opponent. The females of the group were equally aroused and Ikaze bit Kubaha in a moment of excitement.

Isabukuru rounded out the incident with a vigorous display towards Kubaha, then “kick-hit” him before allowing him to go. Kubaha immediately started moving away from the group and was feeding very far from Isabukuru’s group when the observation and data collection period came to a close. The Fossey Fund field staff was unable to detect any serious injuries on Kubaha, however a wound was seen on his right arm from Ikaze’s bite. Karisoke researcher Stacy Rosenbaum made plans to trek to the group the next day to collect data and report on the group dynamic. More to come.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Silverback Inshuti is not getting much of a  break from lone silverbacks! Today he interacted with lone silverback Tuyizere. This lone silverback followed the group forcing Inshuti to travel a long distance. Inshuti charged him twice to prevent him from going any closer to the females in the group. Fortunately, the dominant silverback appeared to have recovered enough from last week’s attack to deal with the intruder.

Inshuti seems to be slowly recovering from injuries inflicted by two lone silverbacks on Friday (a large wound on his head is still open but dry).

On Friday, we were not able to identify the two lone silverbacks but on Saturday trackers got a closer look and identified one of them as lone silverback Turatsinze. So we can probably assume Tuyizere was with him on Friday and  together they attacked Inshuti. This makes sense considering that we also saw these two males together in November, during an interaction with Titus’s group.

Tuyizere’s advances led the group to travel over 600 meters today in an effort to escape. The lone silverback persisted for 4.5 hours until, at 1:30 p.m., he gave up his chase. Although there were no actual displays observed during the interaction, Inshuti did charge Tuyizere twice, sending the loner retreating back into the vegetation. Tuyizere was 100 meters away from the group when the observation period came to a close.

Veronica Vecellio and Jessica Burbridge, Karisoke Research Center

Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D., accompanied the team assembled to assess the condition of injured dominant silverback Inshuti this morning. Eckardt reported that “although his injuries are indeed severe, the group leader appears to be toughing it out -- in typical Inshuti style” and a medical intervention was not necessary. She added “overall, the group appears to be exhausted from the incident and was traveling slowly, stopping frequently to rest.” With Inshuti injured, adult female Shangaza took the initiative to lead the group away from the one lone silverback who was still on the trail of the group.

Karisoke trackers were able to successfully identify this remaining lone silverback as 21-year-old Turatsinze -- the same male that participated in an interaction with Titus group last November in an attempt to acquire female Ubufatanye (Fat). Turatsinze has been a lone silverback since 2006 when he dispersed from Pablo group on Oct. 18 of that year. It appears that he has traveled solo long enough -- and is anxious to start his own group.

And Inshuti is all too familiar with Turatsinze’s struggle. Interestingly, Inshuti is one of the few lone silverbacks observed by the Karisoke Research Center to build a group “from the ground up,” gradually acquiring one female after another. Eckardt reflects that he was “incredibly tenacious and tough. He wasn’t going to give up until he had formed his own group.” It appears that same strength and tenacity has served him well in keeping his group together.

Inshuti was observed directing “neigh vocalizations” towards female Taraja three times this morning. This could provide some insight as to what lured the lone silverbacks to his group. Over the last week, Inshuti was seen copulating with the female, which could indicate that she may be able to conceive again. Inshuti’s “neigh vocalizations” could have been an attempt to strengthen the bond between the pair, and deter her from leaving his group to accompany the lone silverback.

Inshuti was feeding very little today and his condition must be monitored closely throughout the next several days by Karisoke field staff. MGVP veterinarians will visit the group again Tuesday to ensure that he is recovering smoothly. As for Turatsinze -- the lone silverback was 700 meters from the group when the team left this afternoon and moving in the opposite direction. Trackers will continue to search for the missing lone silverback for identification purposes.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Two lone silverbacks joined forces and attacked 24-year-old dominant silverback Inshuti today, reports Fossey Fund Field Data Coordinator John Ndayambaje. Inshuti sustained three large bite wounds on his head and one on his neck. Veterinarians Dr. Dawn Zimmerman and Dr. Jean-Felix Kinani (of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project), along with a team of Karisoke trackers, will trek to the group tomorrow to assess the damage and potentially carry out a medical intervention. Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, PhD., will join the team to collect behavioral data and fecal samples for her ongoing study on stress in the mountain gorillas.

Ndayambaje reported that the interaction began in the Tamu area between Mount Visoke and Mount Karisimbi at 11:24 a.m. and lasted almost 2-1/2 hours, until the pair of silverbacks retreated from the group at 1:49 p.m. The unidentified silverbacks displayed 19 times throughout the first half of the interaction, pushing Inshuti and his group to travel over 1.5 kilometers through the forest, in an attempt to get away from the intruders. Inshuti displayed three times before the physical interaction began, when he sustained the bite wounds.

With the absence of any other males in the group to help Inshuti, the three females, Shangaza, Taraja and Nyandwi, participated in the interaction in defense of their infants and injured leader. The two infants remained on their mother’s backs throughout the entire interaction -- which the field staff found particularly interesting because, at almost 3 years old, both offspring are at an age that they would not normally need to travel on their mothers' backs.

Females Shangaza and Taraja reportedly charged the two silverbacks twice. On the first occasion, they charged both silverbacks jointly, causing the males to turn and retreat. Next, they charged only one of the silverbacks, at which point, the other male charged the females, who then retreated. During this time, Inshuti attempted to display, but was too weak to chest beat and was only able to display with hooting vocalizations. Inshuti group trackers report that the pair of silverbacks are 350 meters away from the group at this time. Inshuti is said to be in critical condition and appears to be in quite a lot of pain.

Although the attackers are not yet officially identified, the field staff believes these two silverbacks could possibly be 15-year-old Gushimira and 14-year-old Twihangane, the gorillas that dispersed from Pablo group on August 16. However, there are currently six lone silverbacks that are monitored by the Karisoke Research Center in this area and realistically, the aggressors could be any of them. Along with the medical intervention team for Inshuti, another team of trackers will enter the forest tomorrow morning to track the silverbacks and attempt to identify the individuals.

Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio says that “this is not the first time that Inshuti has been involved in such an aggressive interaction -- he suffered serious wounds from both Beetsme and Pablo (late silverbacks) in the past. He is a strong individual and he will likely bounce back from this.”

Our Karisoke staff is, of course, enormously concerned and hopes that Inshuti will recover from these injuries. Without Inshuti, this group would be in disarray, with the two infants of the group in an extremely vulnerable position.

An account of tomorrow’s observations and possible medical intervention will be reported promptly.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Yesterday our anti-poaching team made a routine patrol on Mount Karisimbi’s eastern slope (not far from the old Karisoke camp) and they found 26 snares. Today, anti-poaching team leader David Sindayigaya organized a "shock" patrol in the same area with the Rwandan Development Board (RDB) and they found 38 more snares. Tomorrow we are going to do the same patrol in the surrounding area.

Unfortunately, this follows a trend we are seeing at this time of year, with espeically high numbers of snares being found. Snares are generally set for other animals in the forest (such as antelope) rather than gorillas, but they are a danger to the gorillas, who may step into them accidentally. Gorillas can break the snares, but if caught within them, can have dangerous ropes wrapped tightly around a leg or arm.

See news story on anti-poaching here.

Also, Pablo’s gorilla group has now moved very far again. They are now close to the Ibuzimu Ravine up in the highland of Kimbagira (which is extremely hard to reach, basically inaccessible). Trackers could see the gorillas in the distance but they could not get any closer. Tomorrow they will try again, hoping that the gorillas will not cross the ravine.

Veronica

Yesterday I observed some interesting dynamics in Kuryama's group which made me think. Silverback Vuba, notoriously the second silverback of the group, was showing off his physical power to the females with strong and frequent displays to them. The displays always ended with him resting, surrounded by all group members, while the dominant Kirahure was a few meters apart in the company of only juvenile Rugira.

Obviously this isolated episode does not lead to any conclusion about dominance challenge, but for sure it shows how flexible are the dynamics and relationships among the females and the two adult males. A few months ago we also observed Vuba leading the group during moving, while Kirahure was behind him trying unsuccessfully to pass in front.

Veronica

With primatologist Felix Ndagijimana being named the first Rwandan director of the Karisoke Research Center yesterday (on what would have been Dian Fossey’s 80th birthday), it is fitting to follow up with another achievement in capacity building this week. Deo Tuyisingize, the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Biodiversity Program manager, will be traveling to Chicago, IL, for a small mammal training period at the Chicago Field Museum for the months of February and March. Funded by the Field Museum and IDP Foundation, Inc., African Training Fund Awards, Tuyisingize will work in collaboration with Dr. Julian Kerbis, an expert in small mammals of the Albertine Rift region.

Tuyisingize says that their primary focus for the study are specimens that are poorly known and thus, difficult to identify, such as mice, bats, voles and shrews. These small mammals are important indicators of environmental health and biodiversity, play a pivotal role in floodplain food webs and can provide important insight into the spread of pathogens from animals to humans.

“Currently, Rwanda does not have a single natural history institution or even a zoological department that is able to process small mammal specimens,” says Tuyisingize. “Rwanda does not have the technical expertise in documenting, collecting, preparing, identifying, cataloguing and publishing data from small mammal communities.” Examining and processing these African specimens at the Chicago Field Museum alongside experienced scientists will provide knowledge and technical expertise that Tuyisingize can bring back to his country to empower fellow Rwandan scientists.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Today we witnessed a brief interaction between Kuryama’s gorilla group and the lone silverback Giraneza. Kuryama’s group is one of nine groups we monitor daily from the Karisoke Research Center. We also record encounters with lone silverbacks, though we are not able to follow them individually. Giraneza is one of several lone silverbacks we run into from time to time, so he is fairly well known to us.

Today, Giraneza appeared and tried a “shy” entrance into the group with few displays. As soon as he arrived a few meters from the group, group silverbacks Vuba and Kirahure ran towards him and chased him. Giraneza then ran away quickly and did not try again to gain access.

Still, we are excited to have seen Giraneza, because it has been many months since we last saw him (in July 2011). Giraneza was seen three times in 2011 and each time he was interacting with the Kuryama group, which we find very interesting!

In Titus’ group,  all dynamics are revolving around female "Fat," who is definitely in her receptive time for mating. She often solicits mating with dominant silverback Rano, who today copulated with her three times in three hours. During the same period of time she also mated with young silverback Pato. That act was curiously tolerated by Rano,who was a few meters away and did not intervene. On the other hand,  Rano ran off silverback Turakora, making loud pig grunts, when Turakora was trying to have a sexual approach with Fat. Turakora gave up and run away.

Veronica

Ntambara's group, one of the nine mountain gorilla groups we follow daily from the Karisoke Research Center, reached the top of Visoke volcano today, at very high altitude. They are right on the slope of the crater lake, which makes it difficult for our trackers to go close, but the landscape is beautiful, even magical in scope.

Also today, four snares were found and removed by trackers who follow Pablo's group, very close to the group in the Kimbagira highland. The anti-poaching team will go to survey the area tomorrow.

Veronica

Dr. Dian Fossey’s love for the Christmas season was well known by colleagues and friends here in Rwanda. Hanging a Christmas wreath that read “Howdy” on her cabin door, she opened up her home in the Virunga rainforest every December to host an elaborate Christmas party for her fellow researchers, field staff and their families. The guests feasted alongside one another and shared mugs of "urwagwa," the local banana beer. Fossey decorated the entire Karisoke campsite every year, complete with candle-lit trees and tinfoil and popcorn garland. Standing tall in Fossey’s cabin was the “big tree,” with mounds of beautifully wrapped gifts (gathered from her trips overseas) for her staff and their families. Their celebration would continue late into the night. Christmas carols, sung in Kinyarwanda, French and English, would ring out in the cool night air of the rainforest and her field staff would perform their own song-and-dance routines, accompanied by traditional drumming, describing the events of the previous year with the mountain gorillas.

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International continues to honor Fossey’s love of the holiday season and every December, throws a holiday celebration at the Karisoke Research Center. Today, more than 110 Fossey Fund trackers came down from the Volcanoes  Park to Ruhengeri (the current location of Karisoke) to celebrate with the researchers and administration staff. Fossey Fund Karisoke Deputy Director Felix Ndagijimana delivered an uplifting and inspirational speech reflecting on our growth in 2011 and future plans as we move into the new year.  He commended everyone on all of their hard work in 2011 and passed a message of best wishes for the coming year from the Fossey Fund’s Atlanta headquarters. Field Data Coordinator John Ndayambaje spoke on behalf of the trackers and expressed his gratitude to the organization and their collective enthusiasm moving into 2012. He concluded with a promise that all of the trackers would continue their hard work and maintain a strong commitment to the Fossey Fund’s objectives and goals. 

Following the speeches, the music was turned up and everybody met on the grassy dance floor. True to tradition, there was lots of music, food, drinks, laughing and dancing. Dr. Fossey would have been very proud.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer, Karisoke Research Center, Rwanda

On Tuesday, one-and-a-half-year-old infant Urahirwa from Ntambara' s group was found to be lethargic, not moving much and, worst of all, not suckling. Mother Kubaka was carrying the infant on her back. Urahirwa had a severe skin lesion around her nose and mouth. She had been fine on Sunday, and on Monday the group was not monitored because the gorillas were in a deep ravine on the slope of Mt. Visoke.

On Wednesday three veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and the Rwandan Development Board visited the group to assess the infant’s health, carrying an intervention kit just in case. Our Karisoke trackers were also there to support the vets in case of an intervention, which wouldn’t have been easy because the group has three silverbacks.

Fortunately, Urahirwa was fine. She was perfectly normal apart from the skin lesion. She was eating, climbing a tree and playing with another infant and her brother Kwiyongera. So there wasn’t any need of an intervention.

Veronica

(The last post of a five-part series)

Tomorrow I have a long ride back to Kigali to catch the first of three flights to get home.  I’m sad to be leaving Africa, my second home! Although this trip has been short it was certainly full of excitement.  Animals, travel and Africa are my passions, so this trip did not disappoint. 

And so, here are some things for which I am grateful regarding this trip:

• Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!  If you are looking for a unique Christmas or birthday gift or if you just want to support a charity that does wonderful work please consider donating.  You can even symbolically adopt a gorilla.

• Baobab Expeditions, who donated the prize package for the Fossey Fund contest.  This is my first time traveling with this company and they did not disappoint.  They have expeditions around the world so check them out online at http://www.baobabexpeditions.com/gorillas_-_rwanda if you are looking for a little adventure.  Richard will set up a great trip for you.

• The amazing animals that allowed me into their world once again.  I know it is not everyone’s dream to come to Africa to hang out with animals but don’t knock it until you’ve stood about five feet away from a silverback gorilla!!  Awesome! This was my third and fourth gorilla trek and each one has been so special.

• The wonderful, warm-hearted people of Rwanda.  They are always quick with a smile and a wave.  The children are adorable especially when they run after the vehicle yelling "Muzungu."  Muzungu is a Swahili word that means “someone who roams around aimlessly” but in this context they basically mean “whitey."  Funny!

• All of the guides, rangers and trackers for doing a bang-up job…and for rescuing me [when I fell]!

• My family and friends who support my desire to follow my dreams of stepping foot on all seven continents (Antarctica, I will see you in one month) and seeing animals in the wild, which is where they belong.  Also for following me around the world through the internet.

    Tomorrow I depart at 7:30 a.m.  Hopefully the roads are intact or I just might have to stay a while longer.  Hmm, wouldn’t that be nice?! 

Kathleen C. Rautiainen

On Dec. 7, Karisoke field staff observed subgrouping again in Pablo group. Silverbacks Gicurasi and Cantsbee again instigated the split, with 26 individuals following Gicurasi and 19 following Cantsbee. Our trackers were unable to locate all of the night nests that day and believed that the group did not nest together. The groups were 500 meters apart when a researcher and the trackers arrived that morning and they continued their separation for six days.

But yesterday, Pablo’s subgroups reunited after having spent six days separated. The two nest sites of the morning were two km apart from each other, but the subgroup led by silverback Gicurasi moved toward the one led by dominant Cantsbee and the two met in the morning. All gorillas are fine and surprisingly they all came together without any particular behaviors, just as though nothing had happened.

During the split, the Karisoke anti-poaching trackers supported the Pablo’s tracker team in order to have enough staff to monitor both subgroups and to collect behavioral data without interruption.

It remains to be seen whether this split will happen again or what other changes may occur.

Veronica

[This is the fourth of a five-part series]

Sabyinyo lodge has a vegetarian soup for lunch and supper and two main course options, one of which is vegetarian.  The food has been fantastic!  I’m sure all the calories I burned off trekking will be made up by the delicious food!

Today was a trek to see golden monkeys.  The golden monkey is found in four national parks in Central Africa.  It is restricted to highland forest, especially near bamboo.  Due to the gradual destruction of their habitat and recent wars the golden monkey is listed as endangered.

After my Susa trek yesterday I was praying for an easy day.  Thankfully my prayers were answered.  We walked for about 45 minutes through farmland and then came to the stone wall that borders the national park.  The forest looked dense beyond the wall.  Was I up for the challenge again?  Well, it turns out that the little darling monkeys came to me this time!  There they were right at the stone wall.  They were in the trees, which made taking pictures difficult.

We decided to climb the wall and go into the bamboo forest.  We found a couple of monkeys with less foliage around them but it was pretty dark for photos.  It was still pretty incredible to see them leaping above, eating and playing.  After a while we decided we would try our chances on the other side of the wall again.  It’s a good thing we did because there they were sitting on the wall.  They just posed for us…and did a little bit of monkey mating too.  It was amazing to see them so close.  They are strange looking little monkeys but beautiful just the same.  Then it was another 45-minute easy walk back to the jeep.  NICE!!

Kathleen C. Rautiainen

Thanks to Fossey Fund supporter Baobab Expeditions (http://www.baobabexpeditions.com/gorillas_-_rwanda) for donating Kathleen’s gorilla trek.

(This is the third of a five-part series.)

Here is a little info to start off Day Two.  The mountain gorillas are in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda.  These mountains have eight major volcanic peaks.  The six in the middle are extinct and the other two remain active, with notable eruptions in 1912, 1938, 1948, sometime in the 70’s and 2002.  Conservation protects the mountains’ alpine vegetation as well as wildlife including the gorillas and golden monkeys.

Now, here is some info about trekking.  For those of you who don’t know, trackers follow the gorillas and relay messages to the rangers.  When you trek, a ranger and a tracker with a gun (to scare off the scary buffalo) walk with you.  They know the general direction of the gorilla family you are visiting and your path is tweaked according to the messages received from the trackers.  Sometimes the gorillas are on the move so it might throw a little curve at you such as having to double back. 

You are only allowed one hour with the gorillas.  You are supposed to stay seven meters away from them but apparently the gorillas don’t know metric.  Sometimes they wander right by you.  Some of the rangers are very strict and if a gorilla is approaching they will make you move back slowly.  Others, from what I hear, are not that strict and tourists have been touched by gorillas.  Sadly, I was with the strict rangers both days, haha!
 
And so, I mentioned in my last email that Day One of the trek was easy for me and that perhaps I would try for a longer trek on Day Two.  When I started reading about mountain gorillas years ago, I always wanted to see the Susa group in Rwanda. [Editor's note: The Susa group is habituated to the presence of tourists.]  Well, be careful what you wish for.  I was put in the Susa trek today and I paid dearly for it.  It took three hours to get to the gorillas…AND IT WAS ALL UP HILL.   I thought I was going to die a couple of times.  You have to have some major cardio/respiratory fitness to do it.  Many people were commenting about how hard it was to catch their breath and that their legs felt super heavy.  I didn’t really pay much attention to anyone else.  I was too busy contemplating how they might get me down via stretcher! 

Going down wasn’t much better.  Sure, your heart and lungs aren’t working nearly as hard but down is hard on the knees and hips.  The mud was very slippery and almost everyone took at least one fall. I was the only one who hired a porter so I slipped lots but never actually fell because he saved me every time.  Unfortunately, one of my slips caused a knee and a hip to give out.  So much for being pain-free!  When you are done with your trek you are awarded a certificate that says what group of gorillas you saw.  I’ll be framing the Susa one! 
 
The Susa group has 33 members with three silverbacks and loads of lovely ladies.  One of their claims to fame is the fact that they have two sets of twins.  Twins are rare enough but even rarer when both twins survive.  One set is seven or eight years old and the other set is five months old.  Usually if a twin dies it is much younger than five months so the rangers feel they will both survive.  Imagine how difficult it is for a mother gorilla.  She walks on all fours so it is very difficult to manage two babies.  Typically the mother will abandon one twin. 
 
You can’t imagine our relief when we finally reached the gorillas.  When I saw Kwitonda yesterday, 17 of the 22 gorillas were all together.  We got to stay in the same area for our hour.  We would trade off positions so everyone could see but otherwise it was easy.  Well, Susa couldn’t be easy now could they? 

After the crazy trek up to see them I was very much hoping they would be hanging out all together.  They weren’t!  We would visit one little “pod” of gorillas and then we’d climb up, down or around to another pod.  Then we’d move on again.  Reaching each new location was more difficult than the last.  We worked hard for this viewing.  And as a note, the porters can’t go in to see the gorillas.  You leave your backpacks, porters and walking sticks a short distance away.  All you can bring is your camera equipment.  It was difficult without a walking stick but a very tall tracker helped me.
 
Each pod had a different cast of characters. One pod had the number two in command silverback, a couple of ladies and some kids.  Another had the alpha male and a juvenile.  You get the picture. It was nice to see some different interactions.  At one point a baby, probably about six months-ish decided to come over to check me out.  I was excited that it was coming straight for me (I was crouched down) but of course I had the strict rangers.  I was immediately told to stand up and step back.   In reality that is the smartest thing to do…especially when mom is so close.  She came over and scooped up the baby and let out a shriek. Good mother!!
 
I have to thank the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund once again for this amazing trip. Tomorrow I trek for golden monkeys.  Will my body hold up to the challenge?  Of course it will.  If there are monkeys to see I will get there!!

Kathleen C. Rautiainen

Thanks to Fossey Fund supporter Baobab Expeditions (http://www.baobabexpeditions.com/gorillas_-_rwanda) for donating Kathleen’s gorilla trek.


(This is the second of a five-part series.)

I’m typing in the dining room while enjoying a glass of delicious white wine.  There is a roaring fire behind me keeping me toasty.  Sabyinyo Gorilla Lodge gives money back to the community. The lodge is beautiful and run by a husband and wife, Nars and Tracey.  Nars is from South Africa and Tracey is from Zimbabwe.  They are very friendly and kind.  My cabin is beautiful with a fireplace, bathtub and separate shower, change room, etc.

Today was my first day of gorilla trekking.  I was in a group with six other people (maximum of eight per gorilla family).  Everyone was from my lodge so we all knew each other. The group asked for a gorilla family that was as close as possible.  I suppose I was happy about that because I wasn’t sure how my joints would do.  It turns out that I wouldn’t have any trouble at all.

It was pouring rain at breakfast so we thought we were in for a bad day.  By the time we started trekking the sun was out and it was hot.  I was stripped down to my t-shirt in no time.  It was muddy from the rain but the lodge provided gaiters so that kept me clean from the knee to the shoe. 

And so, the trek was great.  It was much easier than the ones in Uganda.  It was difficult at times but completely manageable.  I took the prescription arthritis medication that the doc gave me and I was fine.  Yay!  I am seriously contemplating doing a longer trek tomorrow.  Maybe I won’t request the farthest group but perhaps a medium group.  I do love to tempt fate, you know!

I hired a porter for $10.  He carried my backpack. which freed me up to just enjoy the hike and not worry about falling on my camera.  Nars told me that many of the porters are ex-poachers who are now making an honest living from the gorillas.  Habituated gorillas are 100 percent wild but they are used to humans.

We were assigned the Kwitonda Group.  This is a migrant group from Democratic Republic of Congo.  It has 22 members including four silverbacks ("president," "vice-president," "prime minister" and "secretary of state").  Of course the "prez" is in charge.  There are many females and babies.  The youngest is four weeks old.  Too cute!  We spent a fabulous hour with Kwitonda.  We saw 17 out of 22 which was a treat. 

The silverback, “prez,” didn’t concern himself with us much.  There were some juveniles who romped around, played, beat their chest and all that wonderful gorilla behaviour.  The adults were kind of lazy but we were lucky enough to have a mamma and four-week-old baby show up.  It was very difficult to get a photo though (mine is a bit blurry) because she was, of course, very protective.  For me, it was AWESOME.  We were extremely close to these amazing great apes.  It’s an absolute privilege to be in their presence, in their home.  They are beautiful, loving animals.  I loved every second of my time with them and I was humbled to be there.

Kathleen C. Rautiainen

Thanks to Fossey Fund supporter Baobab Expeditions (http://www.baobabexpeditions.com/gorillas_-_rwanda) for donating Kathleen’s gorilla trek.

Kathleen C. Rautiainen of Canada won the drawing for a free gorilla trek, donated by Fossey Fund supporter Baobab Expeditions (http://www.baobabexpeditions.com/gorillas_-_rwanda), when she registered for our new website last year. Our only condition when we awarded the prize: That the winner send us notes that we could share with the rest of you on our blog. Here are some highlights from her Dec. 3-6 trek, starting with her thoughts on the plane to Africa:

Work and theatre have been so busy lately that I didn't have any time to get myself organized.  I literally packed the night before (last night) and finished up this morning. For the first time, I actually started feeling stressed about the whole thing until I reminded myself why I was travelling to Rwanda.  It was to see my favorite animals...primates!  Mountain gorillas don't care if I keep wearing the same pair of pants!  Chimpanzees don't care if I'm having a bad hair day (which is frequent now that I'm growing in the post-chemo hair).  Golden monkeys certainly don't care if my shoes match my...well, you get the idea.  So, I stopped stressing, I threw a bunch of things in a bag and off I went. 
 
Anyone who loves animals as much as I do (is that even possible?) would be extremely excited about going on this type of trip.  Seeing any animals in their own environment, healthy and thriving, is amazing but being lucky enough to visit an animal that is barely 800 strong is special.  Mountain gorillas are in the wild only in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda.  Their numbers are looking brighter thanks to the work done by organizations like the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.  Looking into the eyes of these great apes is enough to make anyone melt.  You would think that you were looking at a human.  Hmm, it sounds like I am speaking from experience, right?  Well, I was fortunate enough to see these gorillas in Uganda in 2007.  I went two days in a row and both experiences were amazing.  It was the toughest trekking that I have ever done but that quickly went away when I saw them in person, especially the little babies. 

Standing about 10 feet, if that, away from a silverback is awesome!  Dealing with wild animals means that you have no control over anything.  They go wherever they dang well please with no regard for how difficult it might be for us two-legged beings!  Even though I saw two different groups of gorillas, each group decided to go the farthest away of any groups on the days that I was assigned to them.  I'm hoping that my two groups this time will be far more cooperative.  I am, after all, four years older, post cancer treatments and full of arthritis in both knees and both hips (that's another story!).  I will push myself to get to the gorillas but I just might tell the guides to leave me behind instead of enduring the climb down!  Maybe my "monkey whisperer" vibe will work on them and the gorillas will adopt me!  :)
 
I also went to Rwanda in 2007 but I actually didn't do any animal excursions.  I went for the culture, to learn about the genocide and to see how this beautiful country and amazing people have come through.  I can't wait to get back there. . .  My heart, mind and eyes are wide open to the adventures that await me in the land of a thousand hills.  In about 10 hours I will touch down on my favorite continent.  I will work through exhaustion and pain to do what I love best...living!

Kathleen C. Rautiainen

To be continued. . .

Lone silverback Gwiza, who has been relentlessly pursuing Titus group for two weeks (attempting to either acquire female "Fat" or join the group) has now vanished. The Fossey Fund Karisoke trackers discovered his night nest amidst the group’s on Thursday morning, but since then they have been unable to locate him. 

Interestingly, the Titus group’s dominant silverback Rano showed very little interest in Fat prior to Gwiza’s interaction with the group and has not been observed copulating with the female in a very long time. However yesterday, with Gwiza absent from the group, Rano took the opportunity to seal his dominance over the female. 

With the many different scenarios that could have played out from this interaction, no one thought that Gwiza would give up and strike back out on his own after expending so much effort. It is of course possible that Gwiza is ranging nearby and will attempt to re-enter the group sometime in the coming days. 

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

1. Ensure our anti-poaching patrols work 365 days a year in 2012.

This year some of the gorilla groups we monitor spent long amounts of time outside the protected park, feeding on seasonal bamboo and other plants at the lower altitudes. Without the money raised from adoptions, we would not have been able to protect them around the clock as they wandered around.

2. Ensure the continued growth of the mountain gorilla population.

Fewer than 800 mountain gorillas remain on the planet. However, the mountain gorilla is the only type of gorilla growing in population. Help keep this momentum going!

3. Receive an adoption certificate and profile about your gorilla.

Have the unique opportunity to learn more about one of the gorillas we monitor on an intimate level. Each adoption comes with a profile that includes detailed information written by our expert field scientists about your gorilla. You’ll also get special access to a gallery of Karisoke and GRACE center gorilla photos, stories and profiles.

4. Gorilla adoption makes the perfect gift for hard-to-buy-for friends.

Stumped about what to get a friend, family member or colleague? A gorilla adoption makes the perfect feel-good gift this holiday season.  Here’s what Fossey supporter, Cindy Broder, says, about her Adopt giving:

“This past holiday season I was thinking about gifts for friends and my husband’s clients, and I wanted to express our love and appreciation for them in a more meaningful way. So, I read about the gorilla adoptions, with their different choices and levels of giving. I chose to give silverback adoptions because they are so awe-inspiring that I think they make the best introduction to the gorillas.

"The response was incredible! There wasn’t one person who didn’t write and say it was the best thing anyone had ever done for them. Some of their children drew pictures of the gorillas on the thank-you cards. One friend joked that he was adding on a suite to his house so his silverback and family could come visit! It just touches peoples’ hearts in such a different way, no matter how many incredible experiences they have had.”

5. Know you are part of the solution.

The top threats facing the mountain gorilla population are all from humans: poaching, habitat destruction and disease. Be a part of the group of people that helps counter these threats and saves an important species from extinction.

Don’t let this holiday season go by without doing your part to save the gorillas you care about...

ADOPT a Gorilla today!

Holiday special -- free DVD of PBS/Nature special "The Gorilla King" with all Adopt orders (except Green adoption). Free shipping too!

Good news! Today female mountain gorilla Umusatsi (27 years old) and her son Rwema were finally back in their group (Kuryama’s). Even their nests were found there, meaning that they rejoined the group sometime yesterday evening.

This discovery came at a good time, as we were organizing a large patrol to look for them and greatly concerned about their well being. Umusatsi and her juvenile son Rwema left the group on Nov. 10, traveling independently since then. They were accidentally encountered on Nov. 18, but Umusatsi was was distressed and they ran away from our trackers.

It’s hard to give a satisfactory explanation for this kind of behavior. This is not the first time that Umusatsi has left the group, only to come back after several days,  and we have observed this with some other females as well. We can speculate on the possible factors involved, but in our minds none can really balance the risks of traveling alone.

Veronica

After the 17th day of interaction between Gwiza and the Titus group of gorillas, led by silverback Rano for the past two years, the situation’s outcome remains unclear. According to the Fossey Fund’s Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio, many different scenarios could unfold. The gorillas have already begun to group together and then regroup, resulting in several different formations as both Gwiza and Rano have assumed the role of lead silverback.

The field staff observed Gwiza leading all but two silverbacks (who remained with Rano) at last week’s end. Today however, the group members are rejoined with Rano while Gwiza and female Fat are resting, feeding and nesting together, 15-20 meters from the group. It is possible that the couple could split off on their own, starting a new research group of gorillas.

Unfortunately, infanticide is yet another possible outcome of this situation and the field staff are concerned about pregnant female Imvune. If Gwiza decides to stay, moving into the dominant silverback position, and Imvune gives birth, it is likely that Gwiza will kill the infant (who was clearly sired by another male).  Fossey Fund Karisoke researchers plan to conduct another pregnancy test on Imvune to ensure that she has not miscarried from the high amount of stress the group has been under during the last several weeks.

More to come soon!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer



The Fossey Fund has just learned of the passing of Mwami Alexandre Muhindo Mukosasenge II, an important figure in conservation in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with whom we have worked for many years.

Mwami Mukosasenge was a leading figure in the creation of community nature reserves in Congo and helped lead their association, the Union of Associations for Gorilla Conservation and Community Development (UGADEC). These reserves are home to the endangered Grauer’s gorilla (formerly called eastern lowland gorillas) and other endangered species.

He was also instrumental in the founding of the first of these reserves, the Tayna Nature Reserve. The reserves are a remarkable and successful community conservation effort, begun by local leaders like Mwami Mukosasenge, a traditional leader and chief in the region, who devoted their ancestral land to conservation.  Grauer’s gorillas are found only in this part of Congo, and the work of conservationists like Mukosasenge is critical to their future.

We are grateful for the pioneering conservation work of Mwami Mukosasenge, and that the Fossey Fund could become a part of this important community conservation effort in Congo. We are deeply saddened by his passing.

Clare

On Saturday, lone silverback Gwiza was still interacting with Titus's group (for the seventh day in a row). Karisoke Research Center tracker John Ndayamba reports that Gwiza followed the group all day, sometimes 5-10 meters away, sometimes 30-40 meters. Trackers found his nest in the morning and it was clear that he had slept within the group. Gwiza displayed four times towards Rano, but no real aggression was observed. Rano ignored the displays completely. Female Fat still seems reluctant to go with Gwiza. They group traveled more than 700 meters that day.

Kuryama's group was out of the park from 6:30am - 10:45am. They were 500 meters from the edge of the park at 6:30am when trackers began the push. The group slept within the park borders.

Irakoze was reported still missing from Pablo's group on Saturday. His night nest was not found. We hoped to send out trackers to search for him Sunday, as the anti-poaching team was on an overnight shock patrol and was not expected to return until late Saturday afternoon.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

It’s day six of Gwiza’s interaction with Titus’s group, and the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center field staff are starting to bet on whether he will ever leave or stay. It seems that the last say will belong to female Fat (Ubufatanye), who doesn’t yet seem to have made up her mind about what to do. Gwiza spent the night with the others. During the daytime Fat is sometimes with Gwiza 30 to 50 meters from the group but she then moves back toward the group, followed by Gwiza. All the gorillas must be exhausted, as they walk long distances every day - today three kilometers up and down hill from Bikereri to the Basumba area.

Kuryama’s group has explored almost all the eucalyptus fields that neighbor the park from east to west in the last two weeks, between the slopes of the Karisimbi and Visoke volcanoes. Today once again they were outside the park, walking for almost a kilometer along the buffalo wall from the Muntu area going west, 400 meters downhill from the wall. Field staff rotate to be with them until evening.

Also outside the park: Ugenda’s, Bwenge’s and Ntambara’s groups, but all for less than an hour before going back inside on their own. The previous day, Ugenda’s group had been outside the park for more than four hours and had to be herded back inside by trackers. This was the first time this had been done for Ugenda’s group. Silverbacks Wageni and Ugenda made many pig grunts at the trackers, but the operation was successful.

It’s the second day for male Irakoze to be missing from Pablo’s group. We are wondering if he has rejoined the two companions from his former bachelor group. We hope to find him (or them) soon, to confirm whether or not that’s the case.

Female Umusatsi and son Rwema were accidentally found by Pablo’s trackers today. She is far from any gorilla group. The closest group is Bwenge’s but it is still far from her. Her own group, Kuryama’s, is kilometers away. She seems very confident in her travelling, but she was distressed by the trackers and run away. We are happy to have found her healthy and we are confident that she will end up in her group or in another one soon. We don’t have staff available on a daily basis to follow her, as the anti-poaching patrol is involved in overnight patrols with the Rwandan park authority (RDB). We will try to track her as soon as we have a minimum of three field staff available.

Veronica

We were saddened to learn of the extinction of the African western black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis longipes)  last week, as announced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It was also reported that two other types of rhinos were close to the end as well.

At the Fossey Fund we fight every day to prevent the extinction of endangered gorillas, and although we know many species are fighting for survival, it is still a shock to absorb news like this. Perhaps stronger conservation measures could have saved them, as they have with the southern white rhino, or at least postponed their demise.

IUCN reports that some 25 percent of all mammals are at risk of extinction, as well one in eight birds and one in three amphibians. More information on all endangered species, including the entire list of threatened species, is available on their website. www.iucnredlist.org/

Ugenda’s group is now joining the other gorillas in their out-of-park excursions. But today, the gorillas encountered something outside of their protected forest that sent them running for the hills. Fossey Fund researcher Winnie Eckardt, PhD. and the Fund’s Karisoke Research Center field staff think that the group may have stumbled upon a swarm of bees.  There are many bee hives in the farmlands around Volcanoes National Park, maintained by the local communities. A multitude of Karisoke researchers have been stung in the line of duty over the years.

By 8 a.m. the group had already traveled 300 meters down from the park border. The team observed the gorillas crest a hill and disappear from view briefly before they all turned and came running back, screaming and aggressing one another.  Eckardt reported that the youngsters were squealing at their mothers, trying to cling on to them for the ride. The group kept moving up the slope and came to rest in a bamboo patch about 80 meters from the park border. At 9:50 a.m., the group moved back into the park.

Silverback Gwiza, who has been interacting with Titus’s group for several days now, continued his relentless pursuit of female Fat (Ubufatanye) today. He continued to display towards her, attempting to get her attention and win her back. Field staff reported that dominant silverback Rano displayed and charged the lone silverback, with Turakora and blackback Pato backing him up, but Gwiza is not easily intimidated. He spent much of the day staring at Fat, but the female remained close by Rano, safe within her group, obviously where she intends to stay. Rano led his group about one kilometer up into the park before coming close to Inshuti’s group. There was an auditory interaction between the groups, but Rano did not proceed further. It seems he feels he has enough on his plate with Gwiza already!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

The infant just born in Urugamba's group has been observed to be a male. Mother Bishushwe is taking good care of him, holding him carefully and protecting him from the cold. This is Bishushwe's sixth offspring, so she is very experienced.

In other gorilla groups, Titus group is still dealing with lone silverback Gwiza, and the ongoing interactions are tiring out the group. Gwiza is focused on female "Fat" from the group, though she is trying to avoid him.

Kuryama's group is really of concern now, as they are repeatedly coming outside of the park. Fossey trackers are able to herd them successfully back into the forest, but then the group comes out again shortly thereafter. This is resulting in the need to provide protection all day and all night as well, to protect both gorillas and the community.

Veronica

Fossey Fund researcher Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D. joined the Karisoke Research Center trackers to observe Kuryama’s group today as they were again herded back into the park. The group slept within the borders of the park, albeit quite close to the edge, and immediately exited the park after leaving their night nests. Umusatsi and Rwema were not with the group again today and their night nests were not among the other group members’ nests. When Dr. Eckardt reached the group this morning, the gorillas were already 300 meters from the park border. After a brief resting period, the group clearly intended to move further down from the forest in pursuit of more of the irresistible eucalyptus bark. The decision was made to begin to herd the gorillas back up the slope at 8:05 a.m. The trackers stopped the “push” at 9:40 a.m. when it was clear that the gorillas were headed back into the forest. But 20 minutes later they re-entered the park, where they remained for the rest of Eckardt’s four-hour observation period.

After some initial discrepancy in the identity of the lone silverback who had been traveling for four days with Ubufatanye (known as “Fat”), it was determined that he is in fact 24-year-old Gwiza, a male who parted ways with Shinda’s group in 2003. The Karisoke trackers had difficulty identifying the silverback due to distance, dense vegetation and the gorillas’ aggressive behavior. Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio says “The identification of a lone silverback is not always an easy task and it can be done by very few people. Part of the difficulty is due to the fact that they are not seen on a daily basis and their features may change with time. But with attentive observation, we are able to identify all of them. Photographs are extremely helpful in the identification process because it allows our staff to magnify the facial area and examine the noseprint.”

The lone silverback has been working hard to form his own group since he left Shinda’s group eight years ago. Not surprisingly, Gwiza is not going to give up his recently acquired female without a fight and the interaction that began yesterday (when Fat attempted to rejoin Titus’s group) is still playing out today.  Fat has been causing a lot of trouble for Titus’s  dominant silverback Rano in the past few weeks. Interestingly enough, Rano has not shown any interest in copulating with the female in quite some time, but still is not willing to let her leave the group.  Gwiza has reportedly been following closely all day, periodically entering the group to display fervently. Rano led the other males in his group in aggressive displays in reaction to the lone silverback’s behavior while Fat retreated further into the group where, evidently, she wishes to remain. The group has traveled over 700 meters today, zig-zagging through the park in an attempt to avoid Gwiza. When the trackers left the gorillas this evening, the lone silverback was still in hot pursuit of his female, suggesting that this interaction could carry on into the coming days.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

The Fossey Fund field staff is very happy that both of the dispersed females and their infants rejoined Kuryama’s group this morning. The group spent the night outside of the park once again, but were herded back in promptly after the trackers arrived in the field. Umutekano and her infant, Dukore, rejoined the group at 10:30 a.m. Although dominant silverback Kirahure initially reacted with aggression toward the dispersed female, the behavior was brief and her infant soon joined the other youngsters in the group for a play session.

By the time Umutekano and Dukore rejoined their group, trackers were already on the trail of the additional dispersed female and her infant. The pair were located 150 meters from the group, with the mother exhibiting stress behavior. The trackers were careful not to approach too carefully and eventually, the mother and infant rejoined the group as well in the early afternoon.

As expected, female "Fat" and the lone silverback are currently interacting with Titus group. (The lone silverback that we believed to be Turatsinze is now thought to be 19-year-old Twizere, a silverback that dispersed from Shinda group in 2007. Closer observation tomorrow should confirm his identity.) The Karisoke Titus group trackers observed Fat approach the group around 10:30 a.m. with the lone silverback close on her heels. As soon as he entered the group, all of the gorillas attacked him without hesitation, with dominant silverback Rano leading the aggression. Both Rano and the lone silverback are reported to have sustained superficial wounds thus far.

Saving the best for last....
26-year-old Bishushwe of Urugamba’s group gave birth last night. This brings our smallest monitored group of gorillas up to 6 individuals!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Today Kuryama’s group was still outside the park, and trackers “herded” them back into the park borders again. This time it took more than three hours, with trackers forming a line to prevent the gorillas from moving downhill, and lots of waiting as the gorillas slowly made their way up to the park. Titus group, which had also ranged out the park recently, was not located at all today, and apparently are in the dense bamboo area of Cundura hill, crossing the trail of another group and making tracking difficult.

There was good news today when trackers found mother Mahirwe safe and sound with her new infant in the group. However, they have still not located females Umusatsi and Umutekano, who both have infants and were not in their group as of yesterday. A large team searched for them today, without success, and a count of night nests showed they were not in the group overnight either. Umusatsi has been known to go off on her own before, and her youngster is already 4 years old. But Umutekano’s infant is only 2 years old and could be susceptible to infanticide if they meet up with a lone silverback or end up in another group.

Lone silverback Turatsinze still has female “Fat” with him, and they were followed all morning, although Turatsinze did not allow the trackers to get close enough for detailed behavioral observations.

Veronica Vecellio, Gorilla Program Manager

Lots of news from the field today, as the mountain gorilla activities have been especially “intense.”

Titus group was again found outside the park this morning, in Kinege area. They were about  400 meters down, in a eucalyptus field. Since they were continuing to move further from the park, staff decided to “herd” them back into the park. This went fairly quickly, as both the trackers and the gorillas have done this several times before.

As we were observing Titus group though, we soon realized that female Ubufatanye (Fat) was missing. (She recently transferred in  from Ugenda’s group.) A check of the night nests showed that she left the group on the previous day. Trackers, led by Telesphore Nsengiyumva, went to look for her and located her in the late morning. She was with the lone silverback Turatsinze, who interacted with the group last week.

Initially the two gorillas were scared and ran away from trackers. But later the trackers were able to approach and collect some behavioral data. They were resting in physical contact and Turatsinze groomed Fat twice. No aggressions or displays were observed -- just a sexual vocalization by the silverback. The decision of Fat to leave the group did not come as surprise considering that she had also showed her intentions during lone silverback interactions last week.

Kuryama’s group was also found very early outside of the park, in Mudakama area. They were about 800 meters from the park when trackers decided to herd them back in. It was the first such experience for Kuryama’s group so this took some time.

Unfortunately, as Kuryama’s group was finally about to move inside the park, they encountered Isabukuru’s group, which had just exited the park. The two groups interacted for 20 minutes exchanging displays all in the same place. After that the two groups moved to different areas but they stayed outside close to the park border. They all moved inside around 11 a.m. 

Trackers observed that t hree females -- Mahirwe, Dukore and Umusatsi  with their infants --  were missing from Kuryama’s group. A support team came late in the morning to help search for them.  The group nest site was not located so we cannot tell if they were missing  since yesterday or just this morning.

Tomorrow a larger team, supported by Rwanda park (RDB) staff, will try to locate these missing gorillas. There are concerns especially about the 1-week-old infant of Mahirwe.

An additional team will follow Fat and Turatsinze, collecting data on them.

Submitted by Veronica Vecellio, Gorilla Program Manager

It’s with great sadness that I am writing to inform you that our colleague Jean Damascene Kamufozi, a member of the Karisoke Research Center's anti-poaching team and one of the longest serving Fossey Fund staff members, passed away this morning, Nov. 9, at Ruhengeri Hospital. He fell sick last week and was transferred to Kinigi Health Center and last weekend to Ruhengeri Hospital.

Kamufozi was born in 1959 in the former Cyabingo Commune and joined the Fossey Fund in 1988. He was a very dedicated employee and a great person to work with. He leaves behind a wife and eight children.

The funeral services will be held tomorrow at his residence in Kinigi.

May his soul rest in peace.

Felix

Two interactions took place today in the bamboo zone.

The first was with Ntambara’s group and Umubano’s group (one of the groups used for tourism). Two silverbacks from Ntambara’s group exchanged many displays with the males from Umubano’s group. Surprisingly, dominant silverback Ntambara was not seen today. The nest count shows that the group was complete during the night, but he may have walked far from his group in the morning. We can’t know if his absence is related or not to the interaction or if it was due to the presence of a lone silverback in the same area.

The second interaction was between Pablo’s and Kuryama’s group, while both were ranging in the bamboo zone of Mudakama. From Pablo’s group, only the silverback Musilikale was involved. He walked toward Kuryama’s group and exchanged displays with the two silverbacks Kirahiure and Vuba. Both interactions ended without consequences.

Missing from Pablo’s group are the black back Irakoze, who had recently rejoined the group, together with female Nyabitondore and her infant. The nest count showed that all members of the group were together during the night. The three gorillas moved away in the morning. It is possible that they are just hidden somewhere nearby in the dense vegetation of the bamboo zone.

Tomorrow we will be able to tell for sure whether  the missing individuals left the group or were just not seen by the field staff.

Veronica

The Fossey Fund field staff is happy to report that all of the gorillas that were missing from Pablo’s group yesterday were found safe and sound amidst the group today. Irakoze, the adult male who attempted to re-enter Pablo group yesterday morning (meeting resistance from silverback Musilikale and receiving a bite from dominant male Cantsbee) is still in the group, where it appears he will remain.

The anti-poaching team was dispatched to search for silverbacks Twihangane and Gushimira (who disappeared with Irakoze in August) in the surrounding area, but were unsuccessful in finding the two bachelors.

See blog from Nov. 7 for earlier details.

Jessica S. Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Last night, the Titus group of gorillas slept outside of the Volcanoes National Park for the second time in the history of the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center monitoring. The group was persistent in their desire to range outside of park borders yesterday and trackers organized to “push” the gorillas back into the park twice during the day. The first “push” occurred at 10 a.m. and took 45 minutes to successfully guide them back into the forest. But, the gorillas quickly came back out into the surrounding farm land and were again herded back into the park at 12 p.m. Fortunately, the group went more willingly and it took the trackers only 20 minutes to guide them back across the park border. (See blog post from Oct. 20 to learn about the tracker’s herding method.)

However, Fossey Fund field staff were dismayed to find the gorilla’s night nests in a bamboo patch about 200 meters outside of the park boundaries this morning. The gorillas had clearly slept outside of their protected forest. Today, the field staff is organizing a rotation of tracker teams to monitor the group both day and night. 

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D., a researcher for the Fossey Fund's Karisoke Research Center, was shocked to discover blackback Irakoze, who has not been seen for almost three months, amidst Pablo’s group during her data collection session in the Mapfundo area of the bamboo zone this morning. Eleven-year-old Irakoze was one of the
three bachelors that linked up and left the group on August 16th, vanishing without a trace. Field staff suspects that the other two silverbacks, Twihangane and Gushimira, may reappear shortly, considering that Irakoze seems to want back in to Pablo's group.
 
Eckardt reported that the large group of mountain gorillas were widely spread out through the bamboo and initially, Irakoze seemed to be peripheral to the group. However, around 12:15 p.m., he began to move toward  the center of the group, possibly seeking protection from dominant silverback Cantsbee. Musilikale, a 13-year-old silverback, had already spotted the deserter and was mounting a vigorous display against him.

Irakoze’s first two interactions with Cantsbee were peaceful and uneventful. Irakoze followed Cantsbee for a brief time, hoping to find safety in his company. However, when the dominant male turned to move up the hill with several group members in tow, he suddenly spun on his heel and ran back down towards Irakoze, pinning him down on the forest floor and biting him on his upper back. The field staff suspects that this behavior was intended to establish his dominance. “The aggression did not mean to hurt him but was just intended as a reminder of who is in charge” said Fossey Fund Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio. Trackers did not see any distinguishable wounds on Irakoze’s shoulders or back after the incident.

Quite a few group members were not located today during the observation period: silverbacks Gicurasi and Kureba, blackback Urugwiro, subadult Agahozo, female Mudakama and infant Teta. The Fossey Fund field staff suspects that the individuals were not located because of the dense vegetation in the area. An extra team will be dispatched tomorrow morning to examine the surrounding area and search for the missing gorillas.

Gicurasi, Cantsbee’s second in command, is not likely to be pleased with the new male addition to the group. The Fossey Fund staff is anxious to see whether Irakoze will be allowed back into his former group. With the support of Cantsbee, his chances look good. However, with silverbacks Musilikale and Gicurasi campaigning against him, his fate is still undetermined. More to come soon!

Jess Burbridge, Fossey Fund Field Communications Officer

After several days of dramatic interaction between lone silverback Tuyizere and the Titus gorillas, it all came to a head yesterday evening when the entire group turned on the loner, screaming and mounting an all out physical attack. 

Dominant silverback Rano had maintained his protective stance between Tuyizere and his group members throughout the day, in particular, guarding his two females, 7-year-old Ubufatanye (who recently transferred to Titus group on Oct. 9) and 11-year-old Imvune. 

Tuyizere has been following Titus group for three days now, forcing the group to walk a long distance to avoid him. The Fossey Fund Karisoke trackers found the group late yesterday morning, several kilometers into the bamboo zone between the Mudakama and Muguri area. Soon after they arrived, the lone silverback silently slipped into the group, sending silverback Rano into a territorial frenzy. Assuming his impressive strut stance posture, Rano began displaying and charging, with Tuyizere mirroring his behavior with equal intensity. Turakora, the second silverback in command, and blackbacks Pato and Urwibutso joined in on the interaction, screaming and displaying aggressively to prevent Tuyizere from coming any further into the group. 

Fossey Fund trackers were surprised to see the two females (who had previously been seeking protection behind the males) come forward and join in on the interaction. Female Ubufatanye assumed her strut stance and moved towards Tuyizere, reaching out and touching the silverback. Rano quickly intervened, placing his massive body between the two. At that time, all seven members of the group moved in on Tuyizere, screaming and biting him. It seemed to be a violent attack and Tuyizere sustained several superficial wounds on his back before he was able to break away from the angry onslaught, still displaying in frustration about 50 meters away from the group.

The trackers left the group late yesterday afternoon once the gorillas seemed to calm down and Tuyizere had maintained his distance, deterred from his intrusion attempt for the time being.

Rano has experience with this scenario, since he himself rejoined Titus group after two years as a lone silverback (and a persistent campaign to get back into the group). Rano moved into the group’s lead position after the death of his father and former dominant silverback Titus. Interestingly enough, Tuyizere, also the son of Titus, left the group to become a lone silverback in September 2008. It seems he wants back in, and may be after his brother Rano’s high ranking position. 

Today, the drama continued and Tuyizere and Titus group were approached this afternoon by yet another lone silverback, who was not immediately identified. It seems that Tuyizere was temporarily successful in his attempt to gain a female companion and the Titus trackers observed that Ubufatanye was no longer with her group around 3 p.m., but near Tuyizere, about 50 meters away. With the threat of the additional lone silverback, Tuyizere and Ubufatanye were following the group this afternoon, searching for protection against the new intruder. 

Around 4 p.m., the Titus gorillas abruptly broke into an all-out run through the bamboo back towards Cundura hill, with Tuyizere and Ubufatanye on their tail and the unidentified silverback in pursuit of them. Trackers reported that Tuyizere stopped suddenly and turned to face this silverback, prepared for a fight and mounting a vigorous display. With Tuyizere distracted, Ubufatanye took the opportunity to escape and continued running through the bamboo towards her group. When the trackers left the group, Ubufatanye was still with her other group members, leaving the two lone silverbacks to fight it out in her wake.

Photo and databased work later determined the identity of the "unknown" silverback to be Turatzinze, a silverback who became solitary in 2006 and is known to us. More to come soon!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

PHOTO by Keiko Mori

Tuyizere, a 17-year-old lone silverback that has not been seen since February of this year, made a dramatic appearance on Cundura hill today. Bwenge's and Isabukuru's group were ranging close by at the top of the hill (but never made visual contact), with Fossey Fund researcher Stacy Rosebaum, Ph.D. and trackers in tow. Rosenbaum reported that chest beats and display vocalizations simultaneously erupted from all around at 8 a.m. Titus's group was just down the hill and had come into contact with the lone silverback. Rano, the dominant male of Titus's group, faced Tuyizere, keeping a 50-100 meter distance as they displayed towards one another on either side of the valley. The gorillas of Bwenge's and Isabukuru's group joined in on the display vocalizations and cacophony ensued. The interaction itself lasted approximately an hour and a half, but the display vocalizations and chest beats continued on for over four hours.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

After a month of cold temperatures, frequent rains and thick mist on Kimbagira, the 45 gorillas of Pablo group have finally moved down into the bamboo zone.  It was a beautiful day for their arrival into the lower altitudes of the park; the sun shone brightly and the gorillas appeared to relish the warmer weather. Fossey Fund Karisoke researcher Dr. Winnie Eckardt was with the group when they arrived in the bamboo belt at 12:30 p.m. this afternoon, with dominant silverback Cantsbee in the lead. Eckardt reported that the gorillas fanned out, in search of the best patches of bamboo shoots. The youngsters of the group were busy engaging each other in games of chase and other playful activities and the adult gorillas happily feasted on succulent shoots nearby. The scene was a stark contrast from the previous week’s observations - when every gorilla was huddled and shivering in the cold rain, high up on Kimbagira.

Yesterday evening, Karisoke researcher Stacy Rosenbaum reported that the group was on the move and covered a substantial distance in a short period of time, stopping only intermittently to rest. By the time her four-hour data collection period came to an end, Pablo group was closing in on the bamboo zone. It was clear that their two-day journey down into the lower level of the park was driven by a single motivation: bamboo.

The group’s closer proximity to the edge of the park gives a much needed reprieve for the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke trackers of Pablo group, who have trekked hundreds of hours of steep terrain in the last month in order to monitor the gorillas every day. Without a doubt, gorillas and field staff alike will enjoy the break from the frigid weather of the higher altitudes in the coming weeks.

However, the bamboo belt is a limited area, and with the addition of a large group such as Pablo, the Fossey Fund anticipates an increase in intra-group interactions. Three groups, Kuryama, Isabukuru and Bwenge, are all ranging near the Pablo gorillas at the moment, bring the total to 101 gorillas moving within a close proximity to one another. We hope that the remainder of the bamboo season is free of aggressive incidents, but acknowledge that this is highly unlikely. The Fossey Fund’s Karisoke field staff will be monitoring the situation closely. Please stay tuned!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

No, we aren’t worried that you will hand a trick-or-treating orangutan an unhealthy snack. We just want you to be sure to choose candy that’s made by companies that participate in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). This is an international organization that works to develop sustainable ways to produce this popular ingredient found in candy, cookies, cosmetics, and lots of other products.

Orangutans are suffering greatly from habitat loss as land is cleared for palm oil production, at the rate of 300 football fields per hour. Unsustainably produced palm oil is driving orangutans rapidly towards extinction, but developing sustainable palm oil production methods can help slow this process. Companies that cultivate palm oil in a sustainable way plant on degraded farmland instead of rainforest land, avoiding logging and uncontrolled burning. These growers make a commitment to produce palm ail in a way that minimizes its impact on wildlife, indigenous people, and the planet.

For a list of companies that are members of the RSPO and are committed to using certified sustainable palm oil: http://www.cmzoo.org/docs/halloweenGuide2011.pdf

Please do your part to help orangutans by supporting candy companies that are trying to help make a difference!

Today’s intervention to remove a snare from 1-and-1/2-year-old male infant Gasore was a success. The intervention team was comprised of Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, PhD.; Drs. Jean-Felix Kinani and Jan Ramer of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project; Dr. Elizabeth Nyirakaragire and three trackers from the Rwanda Development Board; and seven Fossey Fund Karisoke Research Center trackers.

The team located Bwenge’s group outside of the Volcanoes National Park border this morning, in the Muntu area, around 8:25 a.m. The remnants of the snare still dangled from Gasore’s right foot, although he did not seem to be too distracted by the long length of rope trailing him everywhere he went. While outside of the park, the infant stayed close to dominant silverback and father Bwenge.

After an hour had passed, the group began to move back into the park of their own volition and settled in the bamboo belt near the border. The intervention team lingered by the group, waiting for an opportune moment to dart (preferably when mother and infant were peripheral to the group), however that moment never came. Dr. Eckardt reported that mother Maggie was “very alert in the bamboo. She kept an eye on us the whole time.” Eckardt added “Maggie is almost like a second silverback in the group - a very confident female. It is common for her to leave the group or travel peripherally.” The team was hoping to take advantage of such an occurrence to safely dart the mother and her infant.

At 11:35 a.m. the entire group was resting fairly close together, but Drs. Kinani and Ramer decided to proceed with the intervention. Maggie and Gasore were about one meter apart. Darts were fired simultaneously. Immediately after, the mother grabbed her infant and ran with the rest of the group. Silverback Bwenge charged the intervention team, screaming loudly, but changed his mind and retreated with the rest of the gorillas up over the crest of a hill.

The team waited 10 minutes for the sedative to take effect and then moved to find the gorillas. The trackers discovered Maggie lying face down on the side of the slope, on top of her infant. The team quickly moved the mother off her baby and realized that Gasore had not been darted. The vets then injected the infant directly into his back and he was anesthetized shortly after. 

During the intervention, the customary samples were taken, physical exams conducted and the snare rope was removed from Gasore’s leg. Bwenge’s group stayed at least 50-100 meters away from the team as they worked, so there were no interactions with the trackers. Although both mother and infant woke up prematurely and had to be sedated a second time, the entire intervention was completed in an hour and the team was pleased. Maggie and Gasore both received the sedative reversal and, once they regained their strength, rejoined the rest of their group at 12:38 p.m.

This is the third intervention for Bwenge’s group in less than a month. The Fossey Fund staff is relieved that this intervention went smoothly and we hope that Bwenge’s group will have a reprieve from any dramatic incidents in the coming weeks. The anti-poaching team combed the area for additional snares today, but none were found.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Continuing their roaming pattern, the Titus group was again outside of the Virunga National Park boundaries when Veronica Vecellio, Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Gorilla Program Manager, and trackers arrived bright and early this morning. Vecellio reported that the group was moving east, “possibly to find an area where they can go out undisturbed.”
 
Around 8 a.m., the group began to move towards a patch of eucalyptus, some 300 meters from the park border. Vecellio made the decision to have three trackers, led by Titus team leader Telesphore Nsengiyumva, herd the group back into the forest. The trackers selected long bamboo sticks and alternated between waving them in the air and smacking the ground around them.

Vecellio said “the response was immediate and the gorillas began moving uphill slowly.” Although several gorillas let out the occasional pig grunt, they were not particularly scared or stressed. Only 11-year-old blackback Pato made a clear sign of his frustration, and charged the team twice, both times screaming loudly. Undeterred, the trackers carried on and within 30 minutes, Titus group was back in the safety of the park - where, thankfully, they have stayed for the remainder of the day.
 
 
Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

This morning an infant in Bwenge’s group was found with a snare rope around his leg. The infant, Gasore (son of Maggie), must have gotten caught in the snare either last night or earlier this morning, because when our Karisoke trackers arrived in the morning, he was already dragging the rope along, which is attached to his right ankle.

Luckily, the rope is not yet tightly wound onto Gasore's leg, and the group was calm and everybody is fine. However, this type of human-caused incident usually requires an intervention, so tomorrow veterinarians from MGVP and Rwandan park authorities will join our staff to assess the situation and plan for a possible snare-removal intervention.

This incident occurred in the area of Cundura hill, a place commonly used by the gorilla groups we monitor at Karisoke. Anti-poaching staff will go there for further control of the area.

Veronica

Karisoke researcher Stacy Rosenbaum brought great news down from the mountain today: Our elderly silverback Cantsbee seems to be just fine, feeding and behaving normally again.

When the field team reached Pablo's group this morning, Cantsbee was in a new, leafy day nest about 200-250 meters up from where Dr. Eckardt’s team had left them yesterday. The 32-year-old silverback had evidently risen from his night nest and traveled up the slopes to meet the rest of his group yesterday evening. Rosenbaum reported that when she arrived she saw Cantsbee, along with all of the other gorillas, hunched over and shivering, apparently miserable from the extreme cold and constant rain.

At 12:45 p.m. the rain ceased and it warmed up slightly, but the sun didn’t come out from behind the dense clouds. With the slight reprieve from the cold, the gorillas resumed normal behavior and feeding, Cantsbee being the first to rise from his nest. The silverback fed continuously until 2 p.m. As the data collection period was coming to a close, beta male Gicurasi slowly led the majority of the group further up the slope. However, when Cantsbee let out a loud hoot vocalization, the big group of gorillas turned to head back downhill and follow the dominant silverback.

Everyone at the Fossey Fund is thrilled that Cantsbee seems to be in good health and hopes that he will take the opportunity to lead Pablo's group a little further down the slopes of the Karisimbi volcano, where they can enjoy warmer temperatures and perhaps bask in some sunlight!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

The gorillas of Titus group, who have been spending more time outside of the park lately, were successfully herded back into their protected forest yesterday evening by the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center field staff.

After the gorillas made nests and spent the night in the farmland that borders the park three nights ago, staff from the Rwanda Development Board, the Fossey Fund and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) met in Kinigi to discuss their game plan for responding to this new development. After consulting the data on gorillas venturing outside of the park boundaries, they determined that the gorillas have been consistently leaving the park through the years. However, the length of time that they spend outside in the surrounding farmland has been steadily increasing. As concerning as it may be, this is still a natural behavior and an intervention is deemed necessary only in a case such as Titus's group.

The Titus gorillas slept within the park boundaries the night of October 17, but emerged the next morning at 7  a.m. They spent the day eagerly feeding on bamboo and eucalyptus bark outside the park, with a host of curious locals and amused tourists looking on. At 5:30 p.m., 10 Karisoke trackers formed a line and employed a “soft approach” (shouting and brandishing sticks) to herd the group back into the park. Moving slowly, the gorillas began to retreat into their protected habitat, without exhibiting any obvious signs of fear or stress.

The group again slept within the park borders the next night. However, when Karisoke trackers arrived this morning, the gorillas were already out of the park, feasting on bamboo. They moved out from the border as far as 200 meters, but at 1 p.m. three trackers were able to successfully herd the group back inside the safety of the forest.

The MGVP veterinarians will begin an internal parasite assessment (through fecal sampling) to compare the parasite loads of gorillas that spend time outside of the park with those that do not. As the ones that leave the park are in close contact with humans and domestic animals, it is a concern that they may be more affected by parasites. We hope that results from this analysis will help to determine the future approach to this annual dilemma.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Born in November 1978 and famously named by Dian Fossey, Cantsbee is the oldest mountain gorilla monitored by the Karisoke Research Center at 32 years old. The dominant silverback is beginning to show signs of his age and remained in his night nest throughout the entire day today. This behavior is clearly a cause for concern for all who have grown to love this benevolent leader of Pablo group (named after late silverback Pablo).

The Pablo gorillas have remained high up on Mount Karisimbi, in the Kimbagira area, for well over a month now. At such a high altitude - and with the rainy season in full swing - the temperatures have dropped to a bone-chilling low and the heavy mist has settled in all around the largest group of Karisoke research gorillas. Despite October’s tempting bamboo growth at lower altitudes, this group is thought to remain high on Karisimbi primarily due to their large numbers - and the lack of any other gorilla presence - which enables them to avoid possible aggressive intra-group interactions.

Fossey Fund’s Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D., along with Pablo trackers, hiked the four strenuous hours up the steep and muddy Karisimbi slopes to observe the group today. Throughout the data collection period, most of the individuals moved very little and held themselves tightly, preoccupied with keeping warm and shielding themselves from the constant rain. Eckardt was concerned to see that dominant silverback Cantsbee had not left his night nest when she arrived (although the rest of the group had) and in fact, did not move from his nest throughout her entire data collection session. Cantsbee reportedly stayed in a huddled position the majority of the time and did not feed at all. Meanwhile, beta male Gicurasi led the rest of the group 70-100 meters higher up Karisimbi. Several males lingered behind however, unwilling to leave Cantsbee.

Dr. Jean-Felix Kinani of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project will accompany Karisoke researcher Stacy Rosenbaum up to Kimbagira tomorrow to make an assessment of Cantsbee’s health condition. The silverback’s deceased sister, Intwali, is in the back of everyone’s minds, as she (suspectedly) succumbed to hypothermia last year. Dr. Eckardt is cautious about making any assumptions about his condition though, saying “we will only know tomorrow whether Cantsbee’s health is truly in danger. Because he is the oldest, he simply may struggle more than the others to fight the cold temperatures.”

Please stay tuned for details of tomorrow’s observations and Dr. Kinani’s medical assessment.


Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

For the first time in their memory, the Karisoke Research Center’s field staff who monitor mountain gorillas  have observed an entire gorilla group sleeping outside of Volcanoes National Park.

Titus's group, composed of five males and two females, began to spend a significant amount of time outside of the park boundaries last week. In fact, the group was observed out of the park three days in a row, often as far as 800 meters from the perimeter, spending an average of two to six hours in the surrounding farmland and bamboo patches.

The monitored gorilla groups are being lured out of the protection of their park because the bamboo grows much better in the surrounding, open farmland. Free from the densely vegetated forest, the rhizomes can spread out and send up numerous fresh shoots - an irresistible treat for the gorillas.

On Sunday afternoon, October 16th, Titus group’s dominant silverback, Rano, led the other gorillas almost 400 meters out of the park to an area that he had discovered at the beginning of the month. The plot of land, running from Cundura hill down into the Susa area, is a mixed bamboo and eucalyptus field where the tasty shoots are growing prolifically; it is a gorilla’s paradise. Silverback Rano and his group have been methodically consuming all of the bamboo and eucalyptus from top to bottom.

As of Monday, the group was nearing the bottom of the plot and they settled in for an afternoon of feeding. But at 6pm, after four hours of feeding, the trackers were astonished to see the gorillas begin to build their night nests - far from their protected forests. The Fossey Fund’s anti-poaching team and trackers chose to camp close to Titus’s group and are continually monitoring the situation to ensure that both gorillas and the people nearby are kept safe.

Unfortunately, Rano is undeterred by the human presence outside of the park and resistant to any of the field staff’s attempts to coax his group back into the forest. According to Karisoke Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio, “all of the extreme cases of gorillas moving out of the park were done by Titus’s group, led by Rano.”

The people living around the park are understandably frustrated with the gorillas foraging in their fields. The Rwandan Development Board (RDB) and Karisoke field staff must remain vigilant and show an increased presence in the area. With the gorillas, local people and their livestock all intermingling in the landscape, a serious problem could arise.

The Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Deputy Director, Felix Ndagijimana, is in contact with Prosper Uwingeli, the Volcanoes National Park's chief warden, to determine the appropriate course of action to take in the coming weeks. Additionally, an emergency meeting in Kinigi has been arranged for staff from the Fossey Fund, the RDB, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and the International Gorilla Protection Programme to meet and discuss possible solutions. The meeting will address both complaints from tourists (who are disappointed because they are not able to see the gorillas in their natural habitat) and complaints from the community members (whose crops are being raided by the gorillas). Ndagijimana says that they hope to form a team of people who can make recommendations on a case-by-case basis. We will report the results of the meeting as well as any strategies implemented.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

I had the great pleasure recently of taking 80 local fifth grade students on a guided tour of the forest in Volcanoes National Park. Because of their age I couldn't take them to see the gorillas, but they saw the vegetation in the park, learned what gorillas eat, saw other animals or their droppings, and visited Lake Ngezi inside the park, among other things. The park guides helped conduct the tour.

The students came from four primary schools that participated in the Disney-designed conservation lessons that we delivered in six schools in September 2011 (an increase from four schools last year). They were selected based on their score on term exams, which also motivates them to do well in school.

An article in New Times, Rwanda’s only English language daily newspaper, quoted Prosper Uwingeri, the park’s warden and a former Karisoke Research Center staff member, as saying “An enlightened generation will not only depend less on park resources such as wild meat, but also help fight illegal harvesting of park resources.”

Joseph Karama, Education Manager, Karisoke Research Center

I am sorry to again report sad news. This afternoon trackers found elderly female Kubyina’s dead body, in the same area where her traces were seen for the last time on Sept. 8. A member of Ugenda’s group, she was over 30 years old.

The corpse was in advanced decomposition.  Tracker Jean Damascene Hategekimana, known as Fundi, identified her from her body’s shape and location. It was very close to Ugenda’s group’s trail from September. She was lying back down and some internal parts as well as hairs were on the ground, which Fundi could only guess was the result of a dog attack after she had died.The body will be recovered tomorrow and transported to the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project for further analysis.

After the dramatic sequence of events that saw adult females Notobo, Ginseng and Kubyina die in the past few weeks, we don’t have much hope for female Umwana, who left her group on Oct. 8. We will keep looking for her.
 
Veronica

We are saddened to report that our trackers at Karisoke found elderly mountain gorilla Ginseng dead this morning. Her body is being carried down the mountain now by trackers and porters, so a necropsy can be performed by MGVP and park veterinarians.

Considering her condition of the past two days (see previous blog) we were prepared for this to happen. Hopefully the necropsy will give us some answers as to the true cause(s) of her death.  We will report final results when they become available.

Veronica

Bwenge’s gorilla group has had a tough time of it lately, as two individuals have required a medical intervention within the last month. Staff from the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and the Rwandan Development Board (RDB) conducted an intervention Tuesday on Ginseng, a 31-year-old female mountain gorilla.

Ginseng has been ranging peripherally from the group for some time now, and periodically during the last several weeks, she has been traveling alone. This unusual behavior has recently been observed in several other females, including Umusatsi, Kubyina and Kwiruka. On Oct. 1, Ginseng rejoined her group and subsequently sustained several injuries on both hands and feet as a result of aggression from the group’s dominant silverback, Bwenge. She has remained with the group, but has been trailing a considerable distance behind and Karisoke trackers have discovered her previous night’s nests to be at least 100 meters from those of the rest of the group.

Ginseng was moving very slowly, resting frequently and appeared to be very sore and weak during the veterinarian’s observation period several days ago. Some of her wounds, such as an open cut on her right ankle, were suspected to have become infected and her behavior led all involved to decide a medical intervention was necessary.

The intervention team was composed of Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D., veterinarians Drs. Jan Ramer and Julius Nziza of MGVP, Dr. Elizabeth Nyirakaragire of RDB, and Karisoke and RDB trackers. The team found Ginseng the morning of Oct. 4 in the saddle region between Mt. Visoke and Mt. Karisimbi. She appeared to be lethargic and was not feeding regularly.

Taking advantage of Ginseng’s initial 800-meter distance from the rest of Bwenge’s group, the team was able to safely and successfully carry out the intervention. The veterinarians' assessment determined that, although her heart rate and respirations were normal, Ginseng had lost some weight and had a low temperature. She also had blood in her nostrils and a deep wound on the knuckle of her left hand middle finger. A physical exam was conducted, samples were collected and antibiotics, anti-inflammatory and deworming medications were administered during the intervention.

With the medications that Ginseng received, there was hope that her health would improve. However, over the last two days, the Karisoke trackers have observed a gradual decline. When the staff reached Ginseng this morning, it was evident that her death would probably be imminent. Although she has been separated from the rest of her group by more than a kilometer during the last 24 hours, this afternoon trackers reported that silverback Bwenge is now moving his group closer and closer to Ginseng’s location.

Continuing the recent pattern of female mountain gorillas opting to travel solo, today is the second day that Umusatsi and her 3-year-old infant Rwema were reported missing from Kuryama’s group. While this is not unusual behavior for Umusatsi, Fossey Fund Gorilla Program Manager Veronica Vecellio says she is “concerned because of all the past experiences of females going missing, only to find them in very poor health several weeks later.” A Karisoke anti-poaching team will be dispatched tomorrow morning to search for Umusatsi and her infant. The Fossey Fund will monitor both Ginseng and Umusatsi’s situation closely.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications

The Fossey Fund is very pleased that the new men’s ward at the Bisate Clinic is now complete and open for new patients! The new ward provides a private room for male children and another for male adults, as well as a pharmacy and an injection room.

Friday, I had the pleasure of accompanying Ildephonse Munyarugero, the Fossey Fund’s Ecosystem Health and Community Development Program manager, to the clinic. We toured the new facility and I watched as Ildephonse proudly walked from room to room, testing the mattresses, admiring the new furniture and equipment and generally beaming at the fruits of his labor. The program manager has spent many months planning and orchestrating this clinic addition.

For more information about the recent work at Bisate Clinic, click here.

Jesssica Burbridge, Fossey Fund Field Communications Officer

Congratulations to our partner Zoo Atlanta, which just received the prestigious Bean Award for its outstanding gorilla program. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums gives this award to member programs that have demonstrated excellence in reproductive success, research, conservation, husbandry and management. The award was announced at the AZA’s recent annual conference, held at Zoo Atlanta.

We are especially glad that Zoo Atlanta’s work with gorillas has been recognized  because in the mid-1980s, during the time when former Director Terry Maple, Ph.D. was renovating the zoo and moving famous silverback Willie B. from a cage to a natural setting, Maple also offered the Fossey Fund office space so we could move our administrative and fundraising headquarters out of a supporter’s home. We have enjoyed our Atlanta offices – in a former orangutan house – ever since.

This year, 2011, marks the 50th anniversary of Willie B’s arrival at Zoo Atlanta and the launch of their gorilla program, which Maple greatly improved. Now, the zoo houses the nation’s largest collection of western lowland gorillas. They also have the second largest number of captive-born, mother-reared gorillas among AZA member zoos, including the only twins; are committed to housing and managing male gorillas; and have an impressive legacy of research and leadership in the Great Ape Heart Project.  Our Pat and Forest McGrath Chair of Research and Conservation, Tara Stoinski, Ph.D., also works for Zoo Atlanta, studying their gorillas as well as the wild gorillas followed by our Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda.

We look forward to more years of partnership with Zoo Atlanta and their prize-winning gorilla program.

Clare

I am very pleased to tell you that Tara Stoinski, Ph.D. has been named to the 2012 Indianapolis Prize Nominating Committee, a dynamic and knowledgeable group of individuals who are all dedicated to the welfare of the Earth’s wildlife and wild places. Tara, a primatologist, is the Fossey Fund’s Pat and Forest McGrath Chair of Research and Conservation.

This prize is the world’s leading award for animal conservation. It was created to honor a conservationist “who has made significant achievements in advancing the knowledge of and sustainability of an animal species or group of species.” The prize of $100,000 will be awarded at a gala event on September 29, 2012.

The Nominating Committee will select six finalists from a group of 29 exceptional conservationists who have been nominated by their peers. Nominees will be announced this fall and the finalists will be determined in spring 2012.

Tara will be in very distinguished company, and I am sure she will make a significant contribution to their deliberations. Thanks for representing us, Tara!

Clare

Today I visited Ugenda’s group to see how infant Igitangaza is recovering after the injuries caused by an unidentified lone silverback 10 days ago who intruded into Bwenge’s group (see Sept. 20 post). As the 3-and-1/2-year-old tried to follow her mother Inziza, she was bitten by the silverback, resulting in the loss of one finger and other wounds on her right hand.
 
She is definitely getting better, climbing trees and eating abundantly. She avoids using the injured hand but she keeps up with the group’s speed without a problem. She is always with her mother, following her and whimpering if Inziza gets too far ahead.
 
The wounds are still open but not infected, as Igitangaza appropriately cleans them. 

Veronica

I’m delighted to report that you can now help save gorillas and other endangered species when you buy stamps at the post office or order stamps online!

The “Save Vanishing Species Stamp” went on sale this month, for a price just above the usual cost of postage. The extra proceeds help fund the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife Without Borders Multinational Species Conservation Funds. These important funds support conservation efforts that help great apes, elephants, rhinos, tigers and marine turtles survive. 

The money raised will be divided equally among the conservation funds to support a wide range of projects. These include community conservation, anti-poaching, outreach and education programs, among others. The Fossey Fund has received critical support through U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. This is an easy way to give a little more to our cause. The part of the stamp price that goes to the funds is tax-deductible.

For more details and to order these special stamps, go to:

https://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10007728&langId=-1

Clare

Late Saturday morning, the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center trackers Fidele Habimana, Vincent Gisanabagabo and Lambert Nshimiyimana were winding down their peaceful morning of observation and monitoring in Ugenda’s group, when a brief but severe interaction erupted.

Inziza, a 17-year-old female, and her infant were trailing behind their group when an unidentified lone silverback burst onto the tranquil scene near the Susa River. It is possible that the lone silverback’s attempt to acquire Inziza might have occurred without bloodshed, because the female reportedly showed little reluctance to follow him. However, when Inziza’s 3-1/2-year-old infant Igitangaza attempted to follow her mother out of the group, the lone silverback reacted aggressively, turning his fury on the youngster.

Ugenda’s beta male, Wageni, heard the infant’s screaming and, running back towards the river, bit the lone silverback. Dominant silverback Ugenda maneuvered himself between the intruder and his females and when both Ugenda and Wageni began their chest beat displays, the lone silverback retreated back into the forest.

Igitangaza bore the brunt of the lone silverback’s aggression and was reported to have suffered the most substantial injuries of the group. The young gorilla lost her entire ring finger and has several deep lacerations across her right hand, leaving it with a “mangled” appearance.

Veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, Fossey Fund and Karisoke researcher Winnie Eckardt, PhD, and the trackers who regularly follow Ugenda’s group trekked up Mount Visoke’s western slope early Sunday morning, prepared to do a medical intervention on the infant if necessary. Once the party reached the group, it became evident that other members had also sustained smaller injuries from the interaction. Fifteen- year-old-female Kanama had a deep
cut on the back of her right hand; 16-year-old silverback Wageni had an open wound on his neck; and 7-year-old female Kubana was sporting a short cut near her left eye.

The MGVP veterinarians felt that, although Igitangaza’s wounds were severe, the
bleeding had subsided and a medical intervention was not necessary.  Igitangaza was feeding periodically and did not have a problem keeping pace with the group. The youngster must have been in a considerable amount of pain as she alternated between licking the wounds and cradling her injured hand. She was observed shivering occasionally, but her decreased activity and slight decline in food intake are thought to be the cause. Overall, Dr. Eckardt says that she seems to be coping relatively well, considering the circumstances. The researcher also reported that she kept close to dominant silverback Ugenda and mother Inziza, attempting to suckle at various times throughout the morning’s observation.

Inziza is in the process of weaning Igitangaza, which can be a stressful time for a young gorilla. The injuries that the youngster incurred undoubtedly add to her stress and both the MGVP and the Fossey Fund will be monitoring the situation
closely for any signs of infection or decline in her health condition. We will provide updates when available.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

Twenty-year-old female Ntobo appeared very weak and lethargic when our Karisoke trackers arrived in Bwenge’s group today. Veronica Vecellio, the Fossey Fund’s Gorilla program coordinator reported that Ntobo’s breathing was extremely labored and she was panting considerably.

Because mountain gorillas are highly susceptible to life-threatening respiratory diseases, both the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and the Fossey Fund consider it extremely important to access Ntobo’s situation immediately. After observing Ntobo tomorrow morning, veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and Fossey Fund staff members, with permission from the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), will carry out a medical intervention to fully access her health and condition if necessary.

If further intervention is deemed necessary, Drs. Jean-Felix Kinani and Jan Ramer of MGVP will anesthetize her and conduct the physical examination and medical assessment, administering antibiotics if necessary and collecting samples for further testing. In order to protect the veterinarians from the silverback and other potentially agitated members of Bwenge’s group, the Fossey Fund will organize a large team of trackers to form a protective shield around the doctors while they work. Dr. Jean-Felix said that silverback Bwenge is already aware of Ntobo’s deteriorating health condition as he was observed displaying and gently pushing her when she did not keep up with the group’s pace today.

Ntobo is mother to 3-1/2-year-old infant Ntaribi. Considering the age of her infant, Vecellio notes that it is a possibility that Ntobo could be pregnant again. An account of tomorrow’s observations and results of a possible medical intervention
will be reported promptly. Stay tuned!

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer

“Helping people, saving gorillas” isn’t just a motto. We are devoted to the preservation of not only the gorillas, but also their land and the people they share it with.

Here are 10 reasons why you should become a member of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International today:

1.    Help fund crucial anti-poaching patrols 365 days a year.
2.    Support community development programs for the people devastated by war and poverty in the areas bordering gorilla habitats in Rwanda and the Congo.
3.    Support our Ecosystem Health Program that provides intestinal parasite prevention and treatment, clean water access, education and community development projects.
4.    Ensure that we can care for and rehabilitate orphaned gorillas confiscated from poachers.
5.    Help us support staff of the Rwandan and Congolese national parks, including training on long-term management of the wildlife and forests they care for.
6.    Further scientific research on gorilla behavior, ecology, and habitat.
7.    Help us provide conservation education for the communities near the gorillas.
8.    Receive a 10 percent discount in the Gorilla Fund e-store (get your holiday shopping done early!).
9.    Get exclusive access to full profiles of  the Karisoke gorillas and their rich historical background.
10.  Send fun gorilla eCards while showing your support of gorilla conservation efforts.

We hope you’ll take a stand and support our important mission to save the fewer than 800 mountain gorillas remaining today. Please join us and BECOME A MEMBER today.

Today and yesterday the trackers from Kuryama’s group met the lone silverback Twizere. Today he was on the trail of Kuryama’s group, with whom he interacted yesterday. The interaction was relatively easy and ended up very quickly when silverback Vuba made several displays, forcing Twizere to move away.

Twizere became a lone silverback in August 2007, leaving Shinda’s group, which was one of the three large multi-male groups that Karisoke had been following. Since then we rarely saw him. He was seen another time this year in April, again interacting with Kuryama’s group.

Silverbacks who travel on their own will approach established groups in hopes of attracting females and starting their own group, but the groups’ males guard their females. Only one lone silverback we have followed in recent years has succeeded in starting a group.

Veronica

The largest group of mountain gorillas, Pablo’s group, is facing important changes.

The latest event happened on Aug. 21, when female Nyandwi transferred to Inshuti’s group during an interaction between the two groups. She is 8, the age when gorilla females reach sexual maturity and look for the best mating opportunities, which may involve group change.

Nyandwi is the sister of dominant male Cantsbee and she is from the same family as  50% of the mature males in Pablo’s group. This close family relationship with potential partners justified her move.

The transfer did not occur without an intense resistance from Pablo’s silverbacks. The interaction lasted two hours, during which Cantsbee and Gicurasi from Pablo’s side displayed and had physical fights with silverback Inshuti, from the other side.

Considering his old age, it was particularly surprising that Cansbee actively participated in the fight, both hitting and being hit by Inshuti.

Nevertheless, the beta male Gicurasi was the most heavily involved, facing Inshuti in strut stance posture at the closest distance. The two silverbacks exchanged many displays, including loud chest beats and ground hits. At the same time they were pulling down branches and hit each other in a typical sequence of behaviors accompanied by hoots (hooting vocalization) and loud screams.  

The members of the two groups kept somewhat separate, behind the respective silverbacks. Nyandwi approached Inshuti after the first hour. She was soon kept on that side by inshuti who displayed and pushed her away from Pablo’s silverbacks.

The interaction came to an end when Inshuti started moving away with his group, now including Nyandwi ,and Pablo’s group started walking to an opposite direction.

Considering the dispersal of three adult males that left Pablo’s group on Aug. 16 (and have now been seen traveling together far from Pablo's group),  it seems that Pablo’s group, though still large at 46 gorillas, is facing a difficult phase.

Veronica 

(Photo by Stacy Rosenbaum)

Special search teams have returned after a day of looking for silverbacks Twihangane and Gushimira and blackback Irakoze, but the three males missing from Pablo’s group were not found.
 
Today two trackers from the team that follows Pablo’s group, two anti-poaching trackers and 11 persons from the Rwandan parks authority (Rwandan Development Board ) had divided into four teams to search extensively for any traces of the males. They started out from the August 16 night nesting site, which included the nests of the three males.
 
All other gorillas in Pablo’s group are fine and calm.
 
Just a few words about the two silverbacks Twihangane and Gushimira: In the past few months they have been peripheral to the group and rarely interacted with any of the group members. This is not unusual for males of their age. Irakoze’s movements are less predictable. It would  be extremely interesting and important to figure out if the three males are actually travelling together. A more common pattern is for silverbacks in multi-male groups to split off with one or more females, or to strike out on their own as “lone silverbacks,” several of whom we monitor.
 
Tomorrow we will continue the searching.

Veronica

Today is the second day that two silverbacks, Gushimira and Twihangane, and the blackback Irakoze, all from Pablo’s group,  have not been found.

Their absence from sight yesterday was temporarily attributed to the dense vegetation, as the group’s nest site was complete, showing that all the gorillas in the group had slept together.
 
Today we began to wonder if the three may have left the group for a reason. Pablo’s group travelled for a long distance yesterday and today, behavior which is normally related to avoiding an encounter with a lone silverback, as no other gorilla groups were nearby.
 
Today the tracker team dedicated most of the morning to looking for any trace of the dispersed gorillas, but with no success. Tomorrow again they will pay special attention to Pablo’s group, hoping to find that the three missing males had returned.

Veronica

Very sad news from Ugenda’s group this morning.  Shyirambere, Kubyina’s infant, was found dead close to the nest site where the group had spent the night.  When the trackers reached the group the gorillas were still around the infant’s body. In particular, the two silverbacks Ugenda and Wageni were resting within a few meters looking at him. They charged and screamed at the trackers, not allowing them to get any closer.

The trackers tried to identify the deceased infant.  They saw the female Kubyina a few meters away alone, while all the infants in the group other than hers were present, so it was clear that it was hers.

When last observed the day before, Shyirambere appeared healthy. There was no evidence of an interaction near Ugenda’s group, in which the infant could have been injured. A strong rain had come down all night.

Shyirambere would have turned 3 on September 11.

The trackers waited for the gorillas to move away. They were able to turn over the body at one point, and saw signs of trauma and bleeding from the mouth. The gorillas were about 200 meters away by then, so the trackers expected they would soon be able to recover the body and deliver it for examination by veterinarians from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project.

Veronica

We are following the progress of the new mountain gorilla orphan with great interest. The new infant is a female, named Ihirwe.  Ihirwe means “luck” in Kinyarwanda and certainly expresses our wish for her. She was confiscated from poachers on August 7 and brought to the facility operated in Kinigi in partnership with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP).

The MGVP veterinarians have been with Ihirwe many hours each day, because she was sick and of course stressed when she arrived.   Jean De Dieu Ngilira and another caretaker are taking turns spending the night with her, providing comfort. Jean De Dieu says she is getting accustomed to her new environment, and the vets report that she is recovering from a few episodes of coughing. On August 11 when I visited she was doing extremely well, had a good appetite and looked healthy and fluffy.

Less than a year old, Ihirwe still depends mainly on milk, but is drinking some fruit juice and eating bananas, cucumbers and the local baby food called sosoma. The Karisoke field staff also provided food from the forest that she would be familiar with, mostly wild celery, which she has taken a few bites of.

We have not received a mountain gorilla for a few years. The orphans formerly in Kinigi who recently moved to GRACE are Grauer’s gorillas. Four mountain gorillas that had been cared for in Kinigi for several years are now in Senkwekwe, a new facility operated by the Congolese park authorities (ICCN) in Virunga National Park. Ihirwe will eventually join them at Senkwekwe, following a month’s quarantine in Kinigi.

Veronica

I recently completed the field research for my Ph.D. dissertation on how the socio-sexual behaviors of female mountain gorillas correlate with their hormones, which I discussed in my first blog on May 8, 2011. I would like to thank the Leakey Foundation’s Baldwin Fellowship Program and other donors for their support of my project, and give you all some idea of what the field work was like.
 
I conducted the research in the Virungas, under the auspices of the Karisoke Research Center, from April 2010 to March 2011.   The field work was indeed demanding but mostly enjoyable. Each day, I had to wake up early, prepare my field equipment, go to our intermediary laboratory and pick up the dry ice packs from the freezer to take into the forest. At 7:00 am, I joined other Karisoke researchers in the car to Virunga National Park. Depending on the previous location of the gorillas, I was dropped at the closest parking area, which was usually around 2.5 km from the edge of the park. Before I entered the forest, an advance team of gorilla trackers would confirm by radio the right trail to use. It typically took between one and three hours to reach the group.
 
It was always a pleasure to stay with gorillas during four hours to record their behaviors. When the focal individual was observed urinating and/or defecating, I kept watching at that place until all gorillas had moved at least seven meters away. Then, I used a plastic bag to collect faeces and a pipette for urine. I labelled the samples and immediately put them in the isotherm bags until I got back at the Karisoke offices to store them in the freezer.
 
To monitor the reproductive cycles of the gorillas we are required to collect fecal and/or urine samples on nearly a daily basis from the same individual.  Some days were immediately successful if we were able to collect a sample within the first hour or so of observations.  Other days were more frustrating, when even after following a particular female for four hours we were still unable to get a sample – but it was up to the gorilla, not us, to provide it.  In addition, some days were difficult if the gorillas were far away or if there was a lot of rain. Often, gorillas from the same mother crowd together under a single shelter (a tree) so that it is difficult to observe each individual.  I would typically do field work for four to five days per week and was always ready for a few days off by the end of the week.

At the end of the field work, I felt really indebted to many people: my sponsors, my supervisors, and the Karisoke staff. I chose a Rwandese way to thank especially all the Karisoke field staff by offering each person one drink. Everybody was happy that I recognized their help with the project.  But even though it has been a long year, a lot of work remains for me, with all the laboratory analysis and writing up the results. I will continue to work hard, and hope the next steps will be as interesting and successful as the year I have just completed.

Sosthene Habumuremyi, Senior Research Assistant, Karisoke Research Center

Things are going amazingly well with the orphaned gorillas at the GRACE rescue center in DR Congo, following the arrival of the six from Rwanda over the weekend.

Yesterday, staff at GRACE put the new six and four of the older ones who were already there next door to each other in the nighthouse (i.e. separated only by bars).  That went well, and it was decided to let female Pinga directly in to the group of four. That went very well. So then another female was let in, then two more and soon all 6 Kinigi gorillas were in with the four -- a group of 10!  There were no problems and no signs of stress (no diarrhea)!  Everyone is amazed at how smoothly this has gone.

So the only ones not in the big group right now are the very youngest:  Kyasa, Lubutu and Ihome.

Tonight the plan is to let the group of 10 sleep together in the nighthouse and tomorrow to let all 10 into the outdoor "mixing" yard, which for the Kinigi six will be their first steps back onto Congolese soil....

Reported by cell phone from the GRACE center, Luitzen Santman, manager

This weekend we saw an amazing international collaboration among countries, nonprofit organizations, communities and other entities, all coming together to help move six rescued Grauer’s gorillas from temporary facilities in Rwanda to the new GRACE gorilla rescue center in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A long time in the planning, the move involved transporting the gorillas (who are victims of poaching) by road from Kinigi, Rwanda, to Goma, DR Congo. From there, they were transported one by one in a small helicopter to GRACE, where they will meet other rescued gorillas already there and begin preparation for eventual re-release to the wild. These gorillas originated from Congo, and so are finally back in their ancestral home.

The authorities of both Rwanda and DRC joined the Fossey Fund, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Disney animal experts, and Tropic Air Kenya to make this complicated but critical move happen. Now the gorillas can start their new lives in the right place, where they will be prepared for eventual return to the wild. This is not just a happy ending – it’s a very happy beginning.

The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education (GRACE) center is the first facility of its kind in east central Africa, with room for up to 30 young gorillas to live in species-typical groups and roam through 350 acres of natural habitat, in the hope of eventually reintroducing them to the wild. The site was donated by the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology (TCCB) and is located adjacent to the Tayna Nature Reserve, near the village of Kasugho, DRC.

GRACE was initiated by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund at the urging of the Congolese national park service (ICCN), with funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; design and construction assistance and funding from Disney’s Animal Programs and from the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA). The Fossey Fund and the Walt Disney Company are the first of several partners, including private foundations and individuals that will continue long-term funding and operation of the center.

Thank you everyone!
Clare

My name is Theodette Gatesire, a research assistant in Karisoke’s gorilla program. I have been working for Karisoke since 2007, when I was hired as a data entry assistant after being trained there through an internship and other activities. Later I conducted research on lone silverback activities for my undergraduate dissertation, which I presented in 2006 at the National University of Rwanda. Now I collect data on the behavior and feeding ecology of the gorillas.

I recently attended a workshop in Bwindi, Uganda called “Gorillas across Africa,” along with my fellow Karisoke research assistant Jean Paul Hirwa. It was hosted by the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation and led by the Max Planck Institute and the North Carolina Zoo. Participants came from Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and Nigeria.

A representative of each country gave updates on the status of gorillas in their country. We shared information on gorilla research history, ongoing research projects and what has been found in different countries.

In a session on veterinary medicine we received updates from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project on mountain gorilla health care, cases of gorilla illness, and recent veterinary interventions. We also heard what is being done by Conservation Through Public Health around the Ugandan protected areas. In a Conservation and Communities session we learned about different approaches to gorilla conservation and how community-based conservation is effective in different countries. We also had some presentations about conservation education.

In each session we had a discussion with questions and answers from participants, and we even took advantage of the breaks to understand more about what is happening elsewhere, so we could share the experience of our colleagues from the DRC who are struggling to protect gorillas in spite of the total insecurity in their country. We also learned that in West Africa, poachers are still killing gorillas as bush meat and it requires much effort to educate those people.

I learned that all gorilla populations are facing almost the same threats but countries have different policies, different willingness and different interests in their protection. Some countries like Rwanda and Uganda put much effort into gorilla conservation and tourism while others like Gabon are interested in logging and oil extraction.

I also learned how in Nigeria, they use a tool (cyber-tracking) which records different kind of data -- including geographic coordinates, behavioral data, animal seen, etc.--  and they download them later without taking a long time writing on papers and entering data manually.

At the workshop I gained more knowledge about other gorilla species across Africa. Now I can explain more about not only mountain gorillas but also eastern and western lowland gorillas.

All of us who participated appreciated the workshop and suggested that it would be good to offer it on an annual basis. The organizers agreed but said that more funds would be needed to make that possible. 
 
Theodette Gatesire, Research Assistant, Karisoke Research Center

I am Ildephonse Munyarugero, manager of the Fossey Fund’s Ecosystem Health and Community Development Program in Rwanda, a program that seeks to create a healthy environment for both people and gorillas by supporting, among other projects, rural clinics. The Bisate Clinic has been our main focus since 2002. We have made many improvements in this facility, and I am happy to report on one more that is well underway.

This rural health center is located close to Volcanoes National Park, home to the mountain gorillas. It opened its doors in the 1970s with a tiny space that could not allow the provision of adequate quality health services. One problem was that it has been housing sick men, women and children in the same building. This mixed-gender and mixed-age hospitalization was suspected on several occasions to be one of the routes for cross-transmission of disease, and no privacy for patients was possible. It was hardly a place where sick people preferred to go.

With support from the Fossey Fund, this clinic is now able to provide greatly improved primary health care.  Significant progress has been made in three core areas: 1) infrastructure 2) capacity building and 3) community participation in clinic activities. (See here for more information and photos.)

Recently, the Fossey Fund obtained donations for construction of a new hospital building. This new bloc will include a men’s ward (seven beds), a children’s ward (five beds), a distribution pharmacy and an area for injections. It will also have a rainwater collection system. I expect it to be finished early in August 2011.
 
We thank Judith C. Harris, Rebecca F. Rooney, the De  Koornzaayer Foundation, Richard A. Horder and Dr. Mary Horder for their contributions to this project.

Munyarugero Ildephonse, Manager, Ecosystem Health and Community Development Program.

Isabukuru's and Kuryama's groups engaged in a series of four interactions beginning at the end of May. Clearly, Isabukuru was interested in getting females from Kuryama's group. Silverback Kuryama, weak and injured after the first interaction, gradually moved out of his group. The group is now led by silverback Kirahure, who is now dominant. Signs of this possible change actually began in late 2010.

The trackers were able to follow Kuryama for some weeks but we lost him since he was last seen in mid-June. He was alone and still recovering from his injuries.

Silverback Kubaha moved out from Isabukuru's group after an interaction between the two groups in mid-June. He too was weak and injured.  He rejoined the group after a week but soon moved out again and was last seen in late June, at 1 km from the group. He was still weak but had improved since the previous observation.

Isabukuru finally succeeded in attracting new females in late June, when female Muganga was found in his group. The transfer was not observed; when researchers reached the groups Muganga was already with Isabukuru. Her 3-year-old daughter Rugira remained in Kuryama's group and is doing fine.

Since this last event the situation has calmed down and no more special events were observed. We continue to follow Muganga every day to record all the behaviors related to the transfer.

Special teams are still organized to look for the silverbacks Kubaha and Kuryama but they are still dispersed. Female Umusatsi and her son Rwema had also moved out of the group for a few weeks in late June but returned. The reason for this behavior is not clear. It may be related to the interaction with Isabukuru or to the dominance change in Kuryama's group.

More later...

Veronica

We are very happy to welcome Winnie Eckardt, Ph.D., back to Karisoke this spring as our Judith Harris and Robert Singer, M.D., postdoctoral fellow. Winnie is an old friend to Karisoke and the Fossey Fund. She started as a research assistant in 2004 and then went on to conduct her Ph.D. research at Karisoke from 2006 to 2008. Her dissertation focused on maternal investment among mountain gorillas – for example, how much energy they spend raising male vs. female offspring, which can be influenced by the rank of the mother in the group and other factors. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chester in 2010.

Winnie’s postdoctoral project examines how potential stressors, both natural and those caused by humans, affect the behavior and health of the mountain gorillas. Although the link between stress and health seems obvious to humans – we can all think of a time when we were particularly stressed and became sick – we know very little about the role stress plays in the health of the gorillas. For example, are there individual gorillas that show evidence of chronic stress, and if so, do we find that these individuals have more health-related challenges, such as increased parasite loads?

The study will involve intensive behavioral monitoring accompanied by fecal sample collection to assess hormone levels and parasite loads. Among other results, Winnie and her supervisors at Karisoke, Katie Fawcett, Ph.D., and I, are hoping to provide guidelines for gorilla management that will help ensure the gorillas’ long-term survival. For example, if the study were to find that tourists caused increases in stress for particular gorillas – such as mothers with new infants – one recommendation could be to limit tourist visits to groups with a recent birth.

Winnie’s project will involve collaborations with both Lincoln Park Zoo, which will perform the hormonal analyses, and Emory University, which will perform the parasitology analyses. Winnie recently spent three weeks in the United States, visiting these laboratories to learn the methodology for collecting and analyzing fecal samples; working with me on finalizing the data collection protocols; and writing grants to support costs associated with the project. She also gave several talks on her history at Karisoke and managed to find a little time for sightseeing around Atlanta. It was a busy three weeks, but ones she seemed to relish.

“I’m excited to be learning two new fields, physiology and parasitology, to complement my experience in primate behavior and ecology, and to work with the teams at Emory University and the Lincoln Park Zoo,” she says. “I’m especially looking forward to seeing the gorillas again – the silverback Cantsbee stands out – and working with the Karisoke field staff.”

Winnie returned to Rwanda last year for six months as a teaching fellow at the National University of Rwanda (NUR), a position funded by the African Studies Association of the U.K. to strengthen the long-term relationship and knowledge transfer among NUR, the University of Chester and Karisoke. Winnie is a native of Leipzig, Germany, where she received her diploma (equivalent to the M.A. degree) in biology after conducting field research on monkey behavior in the Ivory Coast’s Tai National Forest.

“Ultimately, I’d like to teach more, but combined with research,” she says. “I believe we can achieve sustainable conservation only through education. I am greatly indebted to the donors who provided me this opportunity to return to Karisoke, continue expanding my understanding of gorillas and have a meaningful impact on their conservation.”

Tara Stoinski, Ph.D., Pat and Forest McGrath Chair of Research and Conservation, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

The seventh annual Kwita Izina gorilla naming ceremony was held in Kinigi on Saturday, June 18. This year the theme was “Community development for sustained conservation.” Kwita Izina has become a major celebration, organized by the Rwandan Development Board (RDB). It was adapted from a traditional Rwandan ceremony for naming children.
 
This year’s Kwita Izina was well attended by the local community, Rwandan government officials, foreign dignitaries, friends of Rwanda and the Rwandan and regional conservation community. The guest of honour was Rwanda’s prime minister, Bernard Makuza, who was the first to name a gorilla. The Fossey Fund was also well represented, by trackers, researchers and guests from the United States.
 
The Fossey Fund was mentioned in one of the categories of sponsors (Bronze) and thanked for sponsoring the Kwita Izina Soccer Competition. This was mentioned more than once by the RDB’s CEO, John Gara and its head of tourism and conservation, Rica Rwigamba. The prime minister also thanked all the partners and the people of the Musanze district, as he recognised the efforts of the communities in contributing to mountain gorilla conservation. He said that mountain gorilla conservation has become a catalyst for the conservation of the rest of Rwanda’s biodiversity. The park authorities’ and conservation NGOs’ contributions to improving the  livelihoods of the local communities was also recognised.
 
A total of 21 infant gorillas were named, and nine of them are from the research groups that Karisoke monitors. We will send their new names, what the names mean and photos soon.
 
The Kwita Izina Soccer Competition was won by Bisate School, which the Fossey Fund and its partners support.
 
Felix Ndagijimana, Deputy Director, Karisoke Research Center

Kuryama Out of His Group

I am Jean Paul Hirwa, a research assistant at the Karisoke Research Center, where I observe mountain gorillas on a daily basis.  I would like to share a very interesting development that illustrates the great variety of male gorilla behavior.

Kuryama, now close to 25 years old, grew up in Beetsme’s group. In 2007 he formed his own group after he split from his father Titus with other gorillas. Since then he has been a dominant silverback, and until now has led a group of 15 gorillas - but lately he has met with setbacks.

Kuryama started being challenged seriously in October 2010 by his group’s two other silverbacks, Kirahure and Vuba. At that time, they were mainly fighting to copulate with females. We observed several fights among those three silverbacks and all of them had wounds all over their bodies.

Since then, even though the serious fights have stopped and Kuryama is well on the way to recovery from his wounds, he hasn’t been able to calm those two other silverbacks and lead the group as other dominant silverbacks do. This is because Kirahure, the group’s second-ranked silverback, kept challenging him to the point where he could copulate with various females when Kuryama was around and Kuryama couldn’t stop him. He could also displace and pass Kuryama, which is one of the main signs of challenge among mountain gorillas.

On May 29, Kuryama wasn’t found all day and it was noticed that he hadn’t spent the night with his group. The following day he was found 1.8 kilometers away. Since that day, Kuryama has remained outside of the group. After such a long time at such a long distance we expected Kuryama to look for his group, but he doesn’t show any particular behavior that one would expect from a dominant silverback that is apart from a large group that he used to lead.

On the other side, Kirahure has taken over leadership of the group, and the other gorillas, even Vuba, don’t show any signs of missing their former leader. They all follow Kirahure as the new dominant silverback.

Now, everyone is waiting to know what Kuryama’s final decision will be. Will he decide to come back in his group and fight to be dominant again, or will he just be subordinate to Kirahure and follow his authority? How will  Kirahure and other members of the group react?  Hopefully, he will not prefer to stay alone and lose the relationships which he had while in the group -- but why not? It would be unfortunate for him to lose his family, because he will need to attract females again to form a new group, which would not be easy; it requires a high level of determination and endurance. We will continue to follow Kuryama and his group with great interest.

Jean Paul Hirwa, Research Assistant/Gorilla Program

We are very excited today to be publishing the results of a study showing that the type of "extreme" conservation efforts undertaken to save the mountain gorillas are resulting in positive population growth. These intensive methods are used among the habituated portion of the Virunga mountain gorilla population, such as by the Fossey Fund's Karisoke Research Center, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the Rwandan park authorities, and they include continuous protection and monitoring during daylight hours and veterinary treatment for snares, respiratory diseases and other life-threatening conditions.

So, while wild gorilla populations have suffered dramatic declines in the past two decades, it has now been shown that the type of intensive conservation we undertake in Rwanda at Karisoke and the Volcanoes National Park is working -- not only to stem losses but also to verifiably increase the population of the mountain gorillas protected in this way.

This stands in contrast to more "conventional" methods of conservation, which include law enforcement and community development projects, designed to minimize negative human influences upon the animals. For example, in the sector of mountain gorillas in the Virungas that are unhabituated and thus do not receive  such "extreme" protection (rather only the more conventional efforts), the population has seen an annual decline. The protected sectors have seen an annual increase.

This study was based upon the decades of research, data (and protection efforts) that were initiated by Dian Fossey at Karisoke,  beginning with the first census of the Virunga mountain gorillas in 1971, when their numbers totalled only 275 (they now number 480, according to the latest census).

The study, called "Extreme Conservation Leads to Recovery of the Virunga Mountain Gorillas," was conducted by a team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the International Gorilla Conservation Program, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, Rwanda's Parc National des Volcans, Congo's ICCN, and the Ugandan Wildlife Authority . Authors were: Martha M. Robbins, Markye Gray, Katie A. Fawcett, Felicia B. Nutter, Prosper Uwingeli, Innocent Mburanumwe, Edwin Kagoda, Augustin Basabose, Tara S. Stoinski, Mike R. Cranfield, James Byamukama, Lucy H. Spelman, Andrew M. Robbins.

Katie Fawcett, Ph.D., Director, Karisoke Research Center

Here are some more details about our difficult but finally successful attempt on Sunday May 29 to free infant Imfura from a snare rope that had been attached to his right leg since the previous Tuesday. After the second unsuccessful attempt (see previous blogs), we had decided to rest for a day before hiking to Pablo’s group for another attempt.

The dedicated team that tracks Pablo’s group reached them very early in the morning and found Imfura and Ishema feeding at the periphery of the group, probably to avoid aggressions. Later, when the intervention team reached the group, it was decided that both mother and infant should be anesthetised.

Pablo’s group is the largest gorilla group, so we were a big team as well:19 people (10 from Karisoke, six from the Rwandan park authority, and four from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project).

After preparing the darts for sedation, the three veterinarians followed the head tracker, Francois Xavier Ndungutse, to where Imfura and Ishema were feeding. Silverback Gicurasi was also nearby, but he seemed to have calmed down after the aggression on tracker Jean Bosco Ntiragenya during the first intervention attempt.

The vets darted Imfura and his mother Ishema.  Both gorillas screamed, followed by a loud scream from Gicurasi. However, they did not attack the vets or trackers. Very few other gorillas noticed this and only briefly stopped feeding.

A few minutes later, as the anaesthetic was taking effect, the first team moved in and formed a protective belt around the two gorillas and the vets. Finally, the rope was removed from Imfura’s thigh and everybody let out a sigh of relief. The rope did not seem to have caused any major problems to the leg.  The vet took various samples for later analysis to check the health status of the two gorillas.  Ishema’s ear was bleeding from a fresh wound, which she appeared to have sustained in the morning protecting her infant.

Once both gorillas were awake and Ishema was able to move, with Imfura close to her, we decided to leave and allow the trackers to continue monitoring them. The trackers later reported that Ishema and Imfura were rejoined by some individuals from the group and that they were seen feeding but showed some signs of weakness

As we walked back, everybody was tired but satisfied with the great job they had accomplished. See our News page for more photos and full story, coming soon.

Felix 

I have very good news to report today from the field. Our team was able to remove the snare rope from infant Imfura’s leg that had caused him so much pain (see previous blog). The intervention was difficult and previous attempts were not successful  due to agression from the gorilla group, rain and bad visibility.

Imfura and his mother Ishema belong to Pablo’s group, which tends to range far away - they were a four-hour hike from the edge of the park - and is also the largest group, with 13 silverbacks. Imfura and Ishema belong to one of two subgroups, led by Cantsbee, but there were enough adult gorillas with them to create a problem for humans trying to approach a group member in distress. Two brave trackers did manage to get close enough on Tuesday to cut the rope from its stake, but were not able to remove it from Imfura’s leg.  Yesterday the other gorillas were aggressing against Imfura in reaction to the sight of the long piece of rope, so he stayed close to his mother for protection.

Today everyone did a great job and the intervention went smoothly. They darted Imfura and his mother, and only a few other gorillas noticed what was happening. We’ve just heard from the trackers who stayed with the group that both Imfura and Ishema have rejoined the rest of the group now and are OK. Jean Bosco Ntireganya, who was bitten during a previous attempt at intervention, was treated in the Ruhengeri hospital and is doing well.

We will provide more details of the final, successful intervention and photos soon.

Felix

This morning staff from the Karisoke Research Center, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) and the park authority (Rwandan Development Board, RDB) went to Pablo’s group ready for a possible intervention to free the infant Imfura from a snare in which he was caught yesterday. On the previous day trackers had succeeded in cutting the rope with a machete, allowing Imfura to move away in spite of the fact that he was still carrying a meter of rope tied on his leg.

The accident caused intense distress among the gorillas in Imfura’s group, which they expressed with screams and displays. Pablo’s group is the largest one. Many gorillas were trying to pull the rope away, making the infant even more scared and pulling the rope even tighter. Because of the tense situation it was decided to postpone any human intervention to the following day.

Today the intervention team was coordinated by Felix Ndagijimana, Karisoke’s deputy director, who went in advance of the others to make a first assessment. The group was spread out. Imfura was with his mother Ishema, another female and the silverback Gicurasi. Felix was immediately relieved to see Imfura moving and feeding despite the snare on his leg. But the rope was causing Imfura extreme discomfort and visible pain, as it was getting very tight. He would scream anytime the snare got stuck on vegetation. Ishema was always at his side to help him move. Gicurasi was nervous and his first reaction was to pig grunt at the trackers.Dominant silverback Cantsbee was not close to them.

At the same time, a team of anti-poaching trackers from Karisoke and the RDB, together with members of the local community, were patrolling the area intensively. They found several fresh bamboo sticks, used by poachers to set snares.

Veterinarians Dr. Mike Cranfield and Dr. Jean Felix Kinani from MGVP together with technician Elisabeth Nyirakaragire from RDB arrived to make the medical assessment. They agreed to proceed with the intervention, as the rope was really tight and the infant was suffering.

After the heavy rain stopped and the gorilla group moved, the team got ready for the intervention. When they reached the group to evaluate the situation and to wait for the right moment for the first tranquilizing dart, Gicurasi charged the trackers and bit Jean Bosco Ntirengaya, a Pablo group tracker, on his shoulder. It was then impossible to proceed and the intervention was postponed.

Jean Bosco was accompanied to the hospital, with two deep marks on his shoulder and upper arm. Tomorrow a meeting will be organized to decide what to do. Pablo’s trackers will go as usual to monitor the group and to assess the situation.

We hope to provide updates on Jean Bosco, Imfura and new intervention plans as soon as possible.

Veronica

As Deputy Director of the Karisoke Research Center, helping to manage many exciting programs, I often have an opportunity to get out of the office and join the field staff as they study and protect gorillas in the forest. For my first blog I’d like to tell you about one of these occasions.

Last week, I joined the anti-poaching team during one of their daily patrols in Sector III of Volcanoes National Park, also known as the Karisoke sector because the groups of gorillas monitored by the Karisoke Research Center range in this area.

For this patrol, we formed two teams of three members each. We patrolled some of the areas most often used by gorillas, between the Karisimbi and Bisoke Volcanoes. The good news is that we did not find any illegal activities that day.
 
During the previous week, trackers following the research groups had reported a high number of snares in Sector III.   In only 10 days, 18 snares were destroyed by trackers and members of the anti-poaching team.

For several days in the past two weeks, the anti-poaching team had not been able to carry out their daily routine patrol, as they were called upon to assist gorilla tracker teams in another area of the park during the search for Pablo’s group, which had not been located for four days. In addition, they helped search for female Ntobo from Bwenge’s group, who was missing for three days. This interruption of the anti-poaching team’s daily patrols may have been known to local poachers, which could explain the high number of snares set in this particularly accessible area in less than two weeks.

On May 15 and 17 we organized “shock patrols” with reinforcements from members of the community and the tracker teams to carry out an extensive search for snares, during which five snares were destroyed. This brought the total number of snares found in one restricted area of Sector III to 23!

The daily patrols are very important, as they provide crucial day-to-day information on trends in illegal activities. This allows timely patrol planning.

Felix Ndagijimana, Deputy Director, Karisoke Research Center

I am constantly impressed by the creativity of people all over the world who care about gorillas and want to help them survive. This past week I learned that Phillip Sheppard, one of the final contestants on “Survivor: Redemption Island,” is using his fame to help our cause, by encouraging his fans to contribute to the Fossey Fund.  It seems most appropriate, because the gorillas too are survivors, hanging in despite the threats from poachers and habitat loss, and  the mountain gorillas are even increasing in numbers, slowly but surely.

Phillip Sheppard of Santa Monica, California, is the CEO of Enterprise Software Sales Group and consultant to the documentary “Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean,” another example of his interest in Africa. He says he wants to help us protect gorillas because he respects the gorillas’ strength and has long been concerned about the crisis this endangered species faces. 

Phillip hopes that he can persuade one million people to donate at least one dollar to the Fossey Fund, which would contribute a very significant amount toward equipping and paying our intrepid staff who monitor the gorillas and combat poaching every day. But whether or not Phillip reaches this goal, I am deeply grateful for his support. It’s very gratifying to see a person who has achieved so much public recognition use his fame for a good cause, especially this one.  But every individual can do his or her part, and it all adds up. So, a big thank-you to Phillip and his fans!

Clare

I'm Sosthene Habumuremyi, a graduate student conducting field research at the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda - supported in part by the Leakey Foundation Baldwin Fellowship Program - and I'm very pleased to be able to share some of my interests with you in my first blog for the Fossey Fund.

For the past two years I've spent hundreds of hours in dense vegetation on the steep, muddy hillsides of Volcanoes National Park, observing and collecting data on the mountain gorillas that Karisoke monitors, for my Ph.D. dissertation on how the socio-sexual behaviors of female mountain gorillas correlate with their hormones.

Among the interesting questions that have been asked about female gorillas is whether they have menopause and miscarriages. Miscarriage among gorillas is an area we are investigating, but currently we have no evidence of it. In the field, no case has been reported as far as I know, though scientists assume that miscarriage is an important component of the long period between births that has been observed in primates. In gorillas this interval ranges from three to 7.2 years. Because we are monitoring the hormones of cycling females around copulations, the resulting patterns will show us what is happening and we'll be able to figure out whether or not we actually have cases of miscarriage.

As for menopause among mountain gorillas, this is still being discussed and it will take time to confirm the details because the number of older females in the population is low. In our study, we've been able to sample the last three months of one older female called Tuck, who died at age 38 in September 2010. Her last infant, Segasira, was 5 years old at the time of her death. We hope that analysis of the hormones in her urine and fecal samples and others will shed light on this question.

Sosthene Habumuremyi, Senior Research Assistant

I am Joseph Karama, the Karisoke Research Center’s Conservation Education Program Manager.  I make conservation education available to primary and secondary students and other members of the communities near Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and to visiting university students. For my first blog I am writing about one outstanding experience I was able to provide.

The words in the title belong to Festus Maniriho, an assistant lecturer accompanying students from Rwanda’s Higher Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (ISAE) on a field trip to the top of Bisoke, one of five volcanoes in Volcanoes National Park. Maniriho was surprised by the density of the vegetation: luscious leaves everywhere dripping with water, cool humidity and thick mists, and very soggy ground with mud up to your knees in places. Although ISAE is located less than four kilometers from the park boundary, surprisingly the majority of the students and faculty have never visited the park. That should tell you something about the rest of the Rwandan population. Every year when I take a small group of local community members to see the gorillas, I get so many oohs! and wows! not only because they are amazed by the natural beauty on display but especially because for most  it’s their first time to see the gorillas.

The occasion I am writing about today however is when the fourth year Forestry and Natural Resource Management class of ISAE visited the park for a two-day “Introduction to Mountain Gorilla Conservation” course hosted by the Karisoke Research Center. The students get a chance to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat and observe their behavior, and they hike one of the volcanoes to study its various vegetation zones. They also view PowerPoint presentations about the behavior and ecology of the mountain gorilla, conservation of Volcanoes National Park and the role of the Karisoke Research Center.

Afterwards one of the students, Theobald Twamukwaya, had this to say:

 “It’s my first time to see vegetation like that, a place like that, plant species like that, an environment like that! It’s my first time to see mountain gorillas, and the team that guided us was very professional. Seeing gorillas on TV - for those who have TV - is not the same as seeing them [in person].

“Setting out [on the Bisoke Volcano hike] I felt it was just a nature walk, but then entering the park suddenly brought a special feeling: the air, the sounds, etc. You can see plants in books but it’s not the same as touching and smelling them, you never forget them. When we reached the top of the volcano it was the most special feeling; some said they were nearer to God and so asked us to be quiet. You hear about volcanoes and you always think of fire or smoke but then you get there and it’s freezing and misty, there is the most beautiful lake with crystal clear water. It was amazing and surprising at the same time.

“What I wish to tell other students in this country is that they need to come to Volcanoes Park and see for themselves what a natural heritage our country possesses. Watching gorillas closely and looking at their behavior leaves you wanting to think about your life and the role you should play in making the earth a better place for all life.”

Joseph Karama, Conservation Education Program Manager, Karisoke Research Center

Like other first-time Fossey Fund bloggers I'm happy to introduce myself with some good news for everyone concerned with the future of primates in the wild. My title is the Pat and Forest McGrath Chair of Research and Conservation. Simply put, I'm a primatologist who studies gorillas in the wild, and I also work with gorillas at Zoo Atlanta. My good news is that my fellow scientists have found evidence confirming that our long-term studies in the field not only add to our knowledge but also help protect wildlife populations.

An article in the current issue of the journal Biology Letters reports that a team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, long-time partners with the Fossey Fund, have found this positive effect where they have been studying chimpanzees in the Ivory Coast's Tai National Park since 1979. Primates and other animals thrive where the scientists conduct their research. "Step outside the research zone, though" the article says, "and the animal sounds fall silent. . . as a result of heavy poaching" according to Science magazine, which reported on the article.

In the journal report, the Max Planck team detailed the evidence that the only consistent and significant factor connected with the presence of the animals was how close they were to the researchers. There were no signs of poaching in the research area but up to 15 times as many outside, due to the scarcity of  funding for park rangers, a common problem in Africa. This should strengthen appeals for funds to support both long-term wildlife studies and national park staff.

It's great to have some data to support what the larger conservation community has felt for a long time -- that our work studying animals can be a great complement to direct protection activities.

Tara Stoinski, Ph.D., Pat and Forest McGrath Chair of Research and Conservation

Some of you may wonder how a gorilla you adopted years ago is doing now.  As the coordinator of Karisoke’s gorilla research program I am pleased to get to know each of the more than 120 mountain gorillas we monitor daily, each one with an individual personality and life story. For my first blog I’ll tell about one of the gorillas whom many of you first came to know when she was an infant.

Kubana, a young female who was 3 years old when she was in our Adopt program in 2006, will have her eighth birthday on Aug. 28. She lives in Ugenda’s group, which was formed when Shinda’s group split following the dominant silverback’s death in November 2008. Kubana is already able to have offspring, and the young silverback Wageni, the second-ranking silverback in the group, has taken an interest in her. They were seen together a couple of times this year.

However, Kubana is still very young to give up playing. She likes to spend time with Ubufatanye, a female of the same age, and also with the infants of the group. Her mother, Kubyina, is one of the oldest gorillas in the Karisoke groups and definitely the dominant female in Ugenda’s group. Kubyina is estimated to be 29 years old, and is currently taking care of her 2 -1/2 –year-old infant. Kubana likes to help her mother take care of the infant, and she and her young brother are often together during resting time.

Last week I wrote that we had received word that another gorilla infant had been confiscated from poachers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where unfortunately the illegal trafficking in gorillas appears to be on the increase.  Friday, Lubutu, named after the area in which he was found, arrived safely in Goma after a long journey by land and air.  Thanks to an emergency action by ICCN, the Congolese wildlife authority, the small male Grauer's gorilla was rescued from poachers early in the week. Messages from our Fossey Fund Africa staff were fast and furious as they worked with ICCN and other NGO's to get the infant to us in Goma as fast as possible. Dr. Eddy Kambale of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) hurried to where the infant was in ICCN custody, to provide initial veterinary care and accompany him to Goma.

Our Congolese partner consortium UGADEC has a small green garden and house behind their office where Lubutu will have his own 24-hour caregiver in a calm quiet retreat.  MGVP has already done an initial assessment and will make a thorough examination early this week. Even though he has apparently been held for some time since his capture, Lubutu seems to be in good health, both physically and psychologically. However, he is quite thin due to an unhealthy diet while in the hands of the poachers and has lost some hair, probably due to stress. He will need much close warm nurturing in the weeks to come.

Lubutu is estimated to be between 1 and 1/2 and 2 and 1/2 years old. Not surprisingly, he is malnourished after months in captivity but he is alert, already bonding with his Congolese caretaker, and has a big appetite. He is experimenting with healthy foods such as milk, peanuts, fruit and aframomum, which is a plant that Grauer’s gorillas love to eat.

What does the future hold for little Lubutu? As a rescued gorilla he will eventually be transferred to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation (GRACE) center in a rural area of the Congo west of Goma. Our staff hopes that once Lubutu completes his quarantine the veterinarians will find him strong enough both physically and psychologically to make this next journey. GRACE 's Confiscated Gorilla Program Manager, Sandy Jones, has flown to Goma to set up protocols for his immediate care, work with his individual caregiver and plan for his transportation to GRACE, where he will join the small group of infants of a similar age already in residence there. Another infant male Grauer’s gorilla, Kyasa, made the same transition successfully recently and is already meeting the other gorillas and exploring the forest.  Later this month, through a landmark collaboration with our partners, six larger Grauer’s gorillas will travel from Rwanda back into their natural habitat in Congo and settle in at GRACE.  We will seriously need that Freedom Fence as soon as possible!  To read a full story visit http://gorillafund.org/orphan-gorilla-Lubutu-recuperating-in-Goma

Clare 

We are just getting word from our field folks in Congo of another orphaned gorilla that has been confiscated from poachers. We believe it to be a Grauer's gorilla because of the area in Walikale where it was confiscated, through the good work of our partners, ICCN, the Congolese wildlife authorities. It is on its way now to our temporary quarantine facility at the UGADEC headquarters in Goma. (UGADEC is an association of community-based reserves in Congo.) Here it will receive an assessment, health check and the necessary medical care. The plan is then to bring the orphan to the new GRACE center in Congo, where facilities are available for its longer-term care.

Many partners are involved in this kind of situation and are working together right now to organize transportation, paperwork, veterinary care, initial assessments and final plans. The GRACE center is fully prepared to care for the young orphan, who would be in quarantine from the other gorillas for about a month, the normal procedure. Then, if all goes well, it would be introduced to the other rescued gorillas already there.

We are also in the midst of planning transportation for 6 gorillas in temporary facilities in Rwanda to go to GRACE, which should happen next month.

The appearance of this new orphan is exactly why the GRACE center was founded. Not only can these rescued gorillas receive care there, but they will be socialized with other gorillas, learn skills for living in the wild, and hopefully be reintroduced one day to the wild in new groups. These are difficult circumstances so we all must hope that everything goes well!

Clare

Traveling up towards the volcanoes which are home to the mountain gorillas the higher altitude is evident as are the recent rains. Rain is never far away in this region and I hope it will hold off as we visit Bisate. The paved road ends and we bump our way over the volcanic rock road into the village. We are met by Ildephonse Munyarugero, manager of the Fossey Funds’s Ecosystem Health and Education programs in Rwanda, and Joseph Karama, manager of conservation education programs.

First stop is the health clinic, where clinic staff and Dr. Mary Horder, an OB-GYN volunteer doctor from Atlanta, give a tour of the facilities.  Each year improvements in facilities and services contribute to the public health of the many people served here each year. It seems the solar panel array and operational results contributed to the decision to build an AIDS clinic funded by the Global Fund, next door to Bisate clinic, bringing much-needed additional lab space, medicine and equipment. The Fossey Fund was also able to deliver the news that funding had been identified to begin work on additional wards for the clinic, providing space for separate facilities for woman and children and maternity services.

As in many African rural villages, the clinic is situated next door to the local school. Since education is now free to all Rwandans, school enrollments have surged and Bisate school is now on double sessions. Half the students come early in the morning and leave at lunch time and others arrive for the second session in the afternoon. The Fossey Fund has partnered with the East African Childerns’ Education Fund (EACEF) to construct a new classroom block that provides light and airy classrooms for the youngest students. New roofs and gutters have also contributed to a water catchment system that benefits the whole village.  The children are well behaved and happy to see visitors, and to sing and practice their English for us. Although there is much still to done to continue to imporove the building infrastructure, our board members are very impressed to see first hand what they have learned only in Powerpoint presentations previously. The school is dedicated by EACEF and the Fossey Fund to the late Dr. Alecia Lilly, our former vice president of Africa programs, who was a pioneer in promoting the idea that healthy ecosystems must include services for the people who live in communities surrounding protected areas.

We finish our tour of the village as rain begins to fall and head back to Musanze for an afternoon full of presentations by the young Rwandan scientists who work at Karisoke Research Center. At the hotel, the board meeting room is full of staff scientist and visiting students from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. More on this in a later blog...

Clare

March 8, 2011

The Fossey Fund’s Africa staff welcomed more than 23 staff and guests to its Africa HQ in Kigali, Rwanda last week. The official board visit began with a garden party reception at the Fund’s official residence in Kigali. Our vice president for Africa programs, Juan Carlos Bonilla and his wife Edna and their two sons make the residence their home and opened it up to the board members in a welcome from Africa staff. Board members who left the Hotel des Milles Collines to travel through Kigali’s tree lined streets were impressed with the capital city’s progress. Brick paved sidewalks, trees and flowering shrubs make Kigali a uniquely clean and pleasant city and an easy and safe place in which to walk at any time of the day.

Next day we had an early start, shepeherding board members and their bags into to safari equipped land cruisers for the journey to Musanze in Rwanda’s north western region. Managing a convoy of five vehicles is the job of our lead driver Alex who skillfully guarantees that no bags or, more importantly, no board members are left behind!

Our journey begins with a long climb up the first of several hills reaching ridge top providing spectacular views of Rwanda’s green cultivated hills and valleys.  We stop several times for photos. Rwanda is known as the Land of Thousand Hills and this is vividly portrayed on our journey.  The beautiful landscape also illustrates Rwanda’s challenge as a densely populated country as we view cultivated fields climbing all the way to the top of the very steep hillsides.  Nevertheless the people we see are smiling and wave as we pass and the country’s commitment to education is evident as we notice scores of children on their way to school. The girls wearing bright blue dresses and the boys beige shorts and shirts make their way along the road side to their local school.

The road continues to gradual climb from Kigali towards Musanze much higher up.We have our first stop at the Volcanoes Gorilla Hotel  where we are met by staff of the Karisoke Research Center as we check in for a two-night stay. After a quick break we head on with Katie Fawcett, Director of Karisoke, to see the Fossey Fund’s Health and Education projects in the village of Bisate where many of the Karisoke trackers live.  On the way we pass the five volcanoes which make up the Volcanoes National Park -- Muhabura, Mgahinga, Sabyinyo, Visoke and Karisimbi -- and those members of the group who are trekking to see the gorillas the next day get quite excited.

More later on the projects in Bisate,

Cheers,

Clare

The activity level here at the Fossey Fund headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., is intense as we and our Africa staff colleagues prepare for a board of trustees meeting in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Staff and board members from Atlanta will be joined by other board members and guests from Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, California, Indiana, the United Kingdom -- 22 in all.

We are all looking forward to meeting and hearing from our field staff, beginning with the Karisoke Research Center scientists and researchers, mostly Rwandan, who are almost as excited as we are. Our young scientists are preparing to wow the board members as they discuss the monitoring and research activities not only among the gorillas and the golden monkeys but also with the whole biodiversity program.  Some of their reports will be shown on the website when we return.

Then on to the traditional and very popular party in the garden at the Karisoke Research Center, where everyone -- board members, science staff, trackers, data technicians, accountants, house staff, drivers and many collaborators and friends -- will celebrate and welcome the board members, hear introductions of all the staff, eat a little, drink a little and dance a lot!

I can't wait and I haven't yet described the Congolese itinerary....so more to follow,

Best,

Clare

As they await transfer to the GRACE gorilla rescue center in Congo, I am told that the six orphaned gorillas in temporary facility in Kinigi, Rwanda, are getting large, lazy and a bit bored. They are literally outgrowing the place and are ready to move to GRACE, where we will begin to "de-habituate" them from their human caregivers and prepare them for eventual release to the wild.

Last year, we were lucky to have the United Nations mission in Congo available to airlift the first group of rescued gorillas to GRACE, from a different temporary facility in Goma. These four, who are much younger, are now doing so well, going out into the forest every day with their caregivers and eating mainly forest foods. Recently, a fifth young orphan -- Kyasa -- arrived at GRACE and began a very successful recovery from the traumatic experience of being captured by animal traffickers.

We are grateful to be receiving support from around the world for our internet-based fundraising campaign to build a special forest fence at GRACE, so the six gorillas from Kinigi will be safe when they arrive and are ready for the forest. A generous donor is matching every dollar right now and people are donating from Australia, Asia, Europe and the U.S. Thank you to everyone!

I am preparing to leave for Rwanda next week, as we have our board of trustees meeting there.  Stay tuned for reports from the field in Africa....

The Fossey Fund is disturbed by the news that oil companies applied to enter Virunga National Park, a World Heritage Site, hard on the heels of the news that several park guards were killed in recent weeks.  Over the years, our Karisoke Research Center trackers have conducted joint patrols with Rwandese and Congolese Park guards in a coordinated trans-boundary initiative to protect the Virunga Ecosystem's Parks and the flora and fauna they harbor and we were all saddened to learn of their colleagues' passing.

So much good has been done in the area to promote tourism and safeguard the wonderful mountain gorillas and new positive stories continue to surface, like the birth of yet another set of twins to the Hirwa group in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.  Millions of dollars from all over the world have helped these efforts and it is hard to see what benefit comes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when the proposed oil revenues go in large part to the oil companies with only a very small percentage, 15% going the DRC authorities.  The Institute Congolaise pour le Conservation de Nature (ICCN) has protested this decision and we applaud their action.

Clare

Staff at the GRACE center have reported the worst storms in more than five years. Power is out and may not be back for a week so communications are difficult.  Although many trees were blown down, the gorilla night quarters and fence did not take any direct hits so the gorillas are doing fine. The human primates are faced with no plumbing and must quickly dig a new pit latrine and, as usual when there is heavy rain,  the road to Kasugho is impassable because of mud. The good news is the DRC government has plans to fix the road which is essential for traffic and supplies to the many projects supported by the Fossey Fund all located in and around the village of Kasugho.

The newest infant gorilla Kyasa, age 6 months, arrived at GRACE over the weekend and has settled in amazingly well. He explores the fenced forest area with his caregiver and is curious and happy.  Plans for the next airlift of the 6 gorillas remaining in the temporary facility in Kinigi, Rwanda are underway but a definite date has not yet been arranged. The next few months will be very interesting as gorillas of varying ages and temperaments adjust to each other. Or more challenging, do not adjust to each other. Wish I could be there to observe!

More later,

Clare

A story on MSNBC.com and in other media today shows photos of a western lowland gorilla at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in England (run by the Aspinall Foundation)  who seems to be better than usual at walking upright (on his hind legs).

Gorillas normally walk on all fours, but are capable of walking upright when needed for short periods of time, such as when they are going to beat their chests, engage in an encounter, or are carrying something (such as food or an infant). This gorilla, named Ambam, according to park keepers has a family history of upright walking, often with arms full of food. Sounds like he and his family have found a great way to carry more food, quickly, to wherever they enjoy taking it!

The internet is our main resource in terms of communicating with field staff and sending interesting and sometimes challenging stories about the young orphan gorillas in our care. Overnight I received great photos of the six gorillas in temporary quarters in Kinigi, Rwanda, and the youngest of all an infant called Kyasa who is in Goma, DRC

Kyasa, approximately 6-8 months old, will soon be going to the Gorilla Rehabilitation annd Conservation Education center (GRACE) in Kasugho, close to the forest reserve of Tayna. Pictures of this very cute infant are on our website and so is information about GRACE.  The other six gorillas are becoming stronger, more rambunctious and like young human primates more destructive. They have been picking away at the cement between the bricks in their indoor holding area, allowing them to punch fairly sizable holes in the walls! Luckily their outdoor area has climbing frames and more space but the sooner we can get them to GRACE, the less the facility will look like a sieve ( maybe a slight exaggeration here).

Staff at GRACE, a collaboration between Fossey Fund, Disney and US Fish &,Wildlife Service and our Congolese partners, can't wait to have these gorillas join the four already there. Our new manager, Luitzen, from Holland, will have fun keeping all of them occupied and safe.

More later,

Clare

Because the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's International headquarters are in Atlanta, GA, we have a 6-hour time difference between here and our staff in Africa. As I spend the time each day sending and receiving dozens of messages, documents and sometimes photos, via the internet I gain a new appreciation for Dian Fossey and her life at the Karisoke Research Center, Rwanda.

No cell phone, no laptop, no internet, no electricity. Gorilla reports, written on a manual typewriter, were sent in waterproof pouches down the mountain by runners from the Karisoke staff. Then by bus to Kigali and onwards via what we now call snail mail. Answers came back the same way, as did the precious funds necessary to keep her gorilla research and protection programs active.

The time lag for her, between one message and the response, would be totally unacceptable by today's standards, yet the constant pressure to respond is still sometimes a challenge for our field staff, (and sometimes for this CEO in Atlanta). Lack of bandwidth in many places in Africa and access to the internet for Fossey Fund staff in very remote areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo are understandable but frustrating.  Cell phones on the other hand have opened up a whole new world in Africa allowing people even in remote areas to communicate with their families, colleagues and the outside world.

What a difference in just two decades!

More from me later this week,

Clare

Helping people. Saving gorillas.

In the village of Kasugho, about 5 hours by road from Butembo, students at the Tayna Center for Conservation Biology (TCCB) are getting ready to present their research and graduate in February. 150 students have completed their full course of studies, among them 30 women.

One of the most innovative higher education institutions in Congo, TCCB has become a player in the regional effort to ensure nature conservation and sustainable development. It was begun with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Graduates will join the ranks of others already engaged in conservation, education and media employed by the national Park Service, Community Managed Reserves, local not-for-profits, radio stations and teaching in other local universities. Creating a community of Congolese nationals accepting responsibility for their own biodiversity.

Good news for the future of the vast rainforests in the congo basin.

Clare

Hi Everyone!

I'm Clare Richardson, President and CEO of the Fossey Fund. This new blog will have entries from our many staff based in Africa, as well as from me.  Although I am based at our U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, I travel frequently to our programs in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Right now, I am preparing for a trip to Rwanda, with one of our supporters. We will visit a group of rescued gorilla orphans that we have been caring for at a temporary facility in Kinigi. These gorillas are ready to be transferred to the new GRACE gorilla rescue center in Congo, where they will be prepared for eventual release to the wild.  GRACE is operated and funded by a small consortium of which the Fossey Fund and The Disney Company are the first members. 

You can get directly to this blog at www.gorillafund.org/blog to follow the daily details of the many ways we help people and save gorillas.