Gorilla Protection

Rangers have been on patrol in the Bukima area every day since last Friday to try to locate all the gorillas. As I mentioned there are three families in Bukima that have all been located and are doing well. One solitary male, Karateka, is still missing. We are a bit concerned, but solitary males can sometimes be difficult to find in the forest, so we shall keep looking!

All of this work has been going on in the western part of the gorilla sector in Virunga National Park. As you know we have been worried about the gorillas in this area as this sector had been under attack from poachers who also want to clear the forest to make charcoal. So we are very relieved that the gorillas are in good shape.

The plans to go into the east, near Bikenge, where the rebels were, are going ahead. We have just been delayed by one day because of all the security measures that we have to take. The UN forces will still be accompanying us and we hope to move in on Thursday to locate all the families in this sector where the killings happened over the last couple of weeks.

A friend has helped me put a map together so this is as clear as possible.

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Good news! Yesterday a ranger patrol went out and found the Munyaga family of gorillas near Bukima. All 7 of them were safe and sound!

This means that all the Bukima families are all accounted for. We now need find out what happened to the remaining gorillas at Bikenge and Jomba.

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On Wednesday a group of rangers and I went on patrol near Bukima. This is about 15 km from where we found Karema and where the other Silverback was killed. We wanted to try and find the Munyaga family, a group of 7 gorillas, to make sure they are still alive. Unfortunately we didn’t find them, but this is not necessarily bad news. It just means we have to keep searching and that they may be deeper in the forest.

My last happy encounter with gorillas back in December..

We hope to go out on patrol again on Tuesday with MONUC to do this again. The area is still not safe so we are reliant on MONUC to escort us.

I also would like to thank all of you who have donated money over the last few weeks. The support of all your comments has been amazing, and we really appreciate all the donations.

Here is a list of what we have received since I started the blog a few weeks ago.

Donation to Gorilla Protection - $1,835
Community Liaison Officers - $450
Truck Hire - $440
Fuel to transport patrols - $396
Patrol Rations - $345
Wall Maintenance - $180
Patrol Tents - $60

And this is what we received on the Congo Rangers blog, managed by Rob, which will also be used to help protect the gorillas.

Salary Bonuses - $2,650
Patrol Boots - $945
Patrol Tents - $720
Patrol Rations - $630
Uniforms for Rangers - $360

We have already received the money and have started buying the items and distributing the bonuses with monthly salaries. As you can imagine most things are not that readily available here, so we order the boots and uniforms from Kenya from a local distributor who has regular monthly deliveries. The tents have been bought locally here in Goma. The rations too are obviously all obtained from near where we are all stationed. We have also initiated the process of hiring community liaison officers for Virunga National Park. During the patrol we will also do an assessment of the wall. I will be posting some photos shortly!

I would like to especially thank those who donated $100 or over to my blog and the Congo Rangers blog – Kristine C, Vitra G, David I, Kathryn D, Matthew C, Dagmar C, Megan M, Melanie B, Ana-Alicia T, Douglas K, Danny S, Stephanie W, Steven A, David S, Oliver V. And the following individuals donated over $1,000 – Vanessa R, Peter M, Pamela O.

THANK YOU!!

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Yesterday we finally managed to have a meeting with one of Laurent Nkunda’s rebel commanders. This meeting was to discuss the gorilla killings and to explain that this has to be stopped.

We set out with Rob Muir from Frankfurt Zoological Society at 0600 from Goma and teamed with MONUC Battalion Commander Lt. Colonel Rajeesh Parmar at 0800. Then we picked up a convoy of 3 UN patrol vehicles and one UN military observer (Milobs) armored vehicle and headed out for Jomba. This is one of the key gorilla sites close to the Uganda border where the rebels have their headquarters.

Shortly after our arrival at 10.30 a company of men came striding down the hilltop in camouflage gear - most of them carrying heavy weapons and rocket launchers. Quite a few were also carrying spears too. Myself, Rob, Lt. Col Parmar and Col Yav (of the Congolese army) met with Col Makenga of the rebel forces. Rob thanked MONUC for facilitating the meeting and thanked Makenga for agreeing to see us.

I was then able to talk with Makenga and Yav for about one hour, explaining who the rangers were, what we were trying to achieve in the park, and how important it is to protect the mountain gorillas and other wildlife even during times of war. I requested access to the Patrol Posts in the gorilla sector so that my rangers could search for the gorilla groups and establish their status.

Col. Makenga granted my request. The rebel commander’s pledge gives us some hope, and I will be carrying out our first patrols from Bikenge next Tuesday.

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I met with Colonel Ashok today from the UN peacekeepinng force, who informed me that MONUC has made contact with the rebel battalion commander Colonel Makenga.

Colonel Makenga has agreed to a meeting at his base in Jomba, and we will be leaving very early tomorrow morning under UN escort to meet with him.

We will be discussing the possible return of my rangers to their patrol posts that they were forced to abandon a month ago, and I will try and negotiate access for patrols into the gorilla habitat to locate and assess the current status of our habituated groups.

We will find out tomorrow if we will have access or not, but I hope to be able to get the first of my rangers on the ground by early next week, or sooner if the rebels accept.

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Three days ago, our conservation partners issued a press release on the killing of gorillas by the rebels. The media all over the world picked it up and it caused a huge outcry.

Now it seems that Laurent Nkunda’s rebel movement (the CNDP) is sufficiently concerned about their public image across the world as to issue a press release vehemently denying the killing of our gorillas by their soldiers. This is it (in French):

communique de presse CNDP1.pdf

The the world has pressured these rebels to stop the killing and it is clearly having an effect. There is a good chance that their men may have received instruction forbiding them to kill gorillas.

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Myself, my staff, my family are completely speechless at the level of support and encouragement that we have received from people all over the world.  We cannot thank you enough.  Until recently, we had neither phones, nor internet, and we couldn’t guess that people cared so much for our efforts to protect our wonderful wildlife.

 

I am planning to translate a selection of the comments into our language, Swahili, and will be posting them on the wall at the park headquarters at Rumangabo.  That way, our rangers will realise for the first time that they are absolutely not alone in their efforts to protect the gorillas.  It has been a terribly difficult journey for many of them, having to flee their homes during the recent fighting between rebels and government forces. 

 

Many of you sent money for the conservation effort.  We have started the emergency programme for the gorillas, that is now possible thanks to your contributions that now amount to just under 7000 dollars.  I will post on that later, and on exactly how the money is being used. 

 

With this blog, I believe that we have, together, launched a whole new way of protecting gorillas.  With that there is renewed hope, which barely existed three days ago.

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Karema was born in 1989 to Mukechuru and Rugendo, a large silverback. His mother Mukechuru died of old age in 1991, when Karema was still very dependant on her care. His father looked after him thereafter.

The word Karema means “handicapped”. He lost his left hand, most likely to a snare. Men plagued his existence to the end, and yet he was known for his exceptionally calm personality. The first recorded contact with Karema was by the biologist Conrad Aveling, who noted his freindly disposition. He was a calming influence on the gorilla group, which was frequently visited by tourists in those days.

He disappeared from his family in February 2002, reappearing as a young blackback a few months later, living a life of solitude.He died at the hands of a species he trusted completely, aged 18.

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Just back from our second trip to Bikenge.  I think we may be making some progress.

 

 

Planning the operation with the UN peace keepers. They have been a big support these last few days

 

The patrol post had been temporarily deserted - rebels obviously aware that we were coming and didn’t want to be around - but we did make it to the site where the gorilla had been shot and saw the drop pit that it’s remains had been discarded in.  The skin was lying there, the hair still silver.  10 meters away the banana tree that the gorilla had been feeding on when it was shot.
 

 

 

Moving cautiously into rebel territory
with the support we needed
 

 

Something positive has come out of today’s visit into the zone under rebel control…  we had a chance encounter with the new Indian Battalion Commander for MONUC who has agreed to arrange an official meeting for us with the commander of the rebel brigade currently occupying the gorilla habitat.  This will allow us to impress on him that even during times of conflict, it is inexcusable to kill these animals that are so important to the country and to the world.
 

At the scene where Karema’s remains were
dumped in a pit latrine.
 

The UN have also agreed to carry out a number of mixed patrols (MONUC Peacekeepers and the ICCN rangers) into the gorilla sector to try and locate the habituated groups.  This will allow us to establish the status of the habituated groups and determine whether or not other gorillas have also been shot and killed…
 

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We achieved some of what we needed to do, and get little satisfaction from it. We were able to confirm that a second gorilla has been killed. There is a very real possibility that others were also shot in the last few days.

We set off early, Robert Muir, myself and six of my rangers. We were joined by two MONUC patrol vehicles. We picked up six Congolese regular soldiers (FARDC) at Rumangabo and headed out to try to make contact with Nkunda’s troops at Bikenge, where the gorilla killings were said to have happened. When we got the the edge of the FARDC’s zone of control, the soldiers left the vehicle and we continued on into no-man’s land without them.

At this point we received news on the radio that we hadn’t infact managed to get a message through to Nkunda, which was a setback - we didn’t know how the rebels would react if they saw us. We decided to press on cautiously, and entered the valley.

We drove past a rebel camp, entrenched less than 250 metres from where we were. They were observing us, seemingly a little surprised. We came to a line of trees, and just beyond that was Bikenge, our destination. The site where the gorilla’s remains were supposed to have been discarded was still about 500 metres away, but at that point we saw a group of over 20 rebel soldiers pacing down the hillside towards us. As we hadn’t been able to get a message across, the fair assumption was that they were not too friendly. We decided to move out fast, and retreated a couple of kilometres away.

This is where our plan B kicked in. We had sent in two of our trackers the day before and they had managed to get to the area and recover the gorilla’s head. It was a terrible thing to have to see. They joined us and we moved out.

We did this because we needed to identify the individual, and to bring back irrefutable proof that gorillas were being killed. We’ve learned a lot: The gorilla had infact been eaten for meat, his name was Karema, another solitary silverback that had been born into a habituated group (meaning that he had grown to trust humans enough to let them come to within touching distance). Above all, we learned that the remaining gorillas are extremely vulnerable - the rebels are after the meat, and it’s not difficult for them to find and kill the few gorillas that remain.

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