January 31, 2013

Silverback Inshuti Sighting Confirmed

This morning Fossey Fund trackers confirmed that the silverback met yesterday was, indeed, Inshuti, traveling with female Shangaza. We are very happy to have finally located them after four months and to see that they are both fine. Inshuti does not like human presence and he moved fast to avoid our trackers, but we got a good view of him and Shangaza nevertheless.

Giraneza’s group was not found today, however, and Bishushwe and her infant are still alone. She was very scared of people and kept running for long distances. Interestingly her traces went to the place where silverback Urugamba died, then she kept moving up Visoke in Damu area. She and the infant are fine, but we don’t know how long they can travel alone and unprotected.

Lastly, we tried to check on Ntambara’s group to see the development of the integration of Urugamba’s gorillas into the group, but unfortunately we had only a partial view of the group, due to their difficult location (crossing two deep ravines).Their nest site was complete suggesting that the gorillas are still all together moving to the eastern side of Visoke, an area normally used by Ntambara’s group.

We are in daily contact with RDB (Rwandan park authorities) for coordination and RDB trackers supported us on all the extra teams needed during these unusual times. Gorilla Doctors veterinarian Jean Felix Kinani also assisted.

Veronica