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New exhibit at Karisoke includes virtual mountains

An exciting new exhibit about gorillas, their habitats, and the Fossey Fund’s work is now open at our Karisoke Research Center facility in Rwanda. New items are still being added, including a special new “Virtual Virungas” mountain exhibit, an immersive, three-dimensional visualization of mountain gorilla habitat, projected onto a bed of sand and operated through a variety of high-tech controls and input.

Virtual Virungas sandbox exhibit at KarisokeThe “Virtual Virungas” uses historic mountain gorilla ranging data, plus satellite imagery and topographic maps to show how the gorillas groups have ranged during different periods of time. Visitors can even modify what is shown on the sand, through connections with their mobile phones or computers.

The “Virtual Virungas” was designed and created by Matt Swarts, Noah Posner, and Tony Giarrusso of the Center for GIS and Imagine Lab in the College of Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.