Archive for June, 2007
I have just heard that Ndakasi is recovering from the acute pneumonia that started last week. Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project vets have been working round the clock with the MONUC doctors and O2 therapy and she appears to be getting better. The vets are not sure how much lung damage has occurred but feel more comfortable about her future than they did last week. Thank you for all your support.
Ndakasi has been suffering from a respiratory infection since last night. The vet thinks it could be pneumonia. She is breathing with difficulty and since 1am today is not eating. We are trying to entice her to drink milk via a pipette. I will keep you all informed. Paulin
The orphaned Ndakasi continues to be monitored by the vets of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. Ndakasi today weighs 2.6 kilos and drinks between 3 and 4 liters of milk a day. The gorilla monitoring team is still trying to count the Kabirizi family. Up until today we have still not been able to identify all individuals; some of them hide when we come and so we just don’t know. The team has just been relieved by another team, and it is not until this work is done that we will be able to reach a conclusion. Paulin
Ndakasi today
And again
And here with Bauma, who works for ICCN, and Dr Jacques, the vet.
As I said in my previous post, the Landrover for which Chris A donated $12,000 is very useful. I can transport Rangers, go to other park stations and patrol posts, and very much improve our effectiveness in the park thanks to this car. It is helping to protect Virunga National Park, the gorillas and all other wildlife. Chris A donated $12,000. The car cost more than this and we used WildlifeDirect open donations for this ie donations that were not for any specific thing. This first receipt from Oxfam is for the shell of the vehicle that we initially bought.
Here are the other receipts in chronological order:
And this was for painting the ICCN logo on the side of the vehicle.
The total came to $19,600. Thank you Chris, and thank you everyone else for your donations. Paulin
I have just heard via the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (from Samantha at WildlifeDirect) that the gorilla orphan Ndakasi has been treated for lice and mites. In general Ndakasi is said to be doing well and the vets are confident that Ndakasi will survive. This is very good news. Mike, one of the vets, visited Ndakasi yesterday in Goma. On another note, I am still unable to confirm that the 32 remaining members of the Kabirizi family are alive and well. Augustin and his team of Rangers have still not be able to do a proper head count. Kabirizi, the Silverback, is so protective that they still cannot get close and they do not want to put unnecessary pressure on the gorillas after everything they have been through. I hope to have more news tomorrow.
Gorillas from the Kabirizi family, taken a couple of months ago.
This is an update on the Kabirizi family from Augustin at Bukima: Today I visited the Kabirizi family. The Gorillas are 2 hours from the Bukima patrol post at the moment. The family is totally traumatized. This is understandable after the terrible events of Friday. It also means that we cannot get close to the family. We do not want to make them more terrified and scared. But we do need to know if any of them are missing. So we still do not know. I will not visit the family tomorrow. But I will go again on Friday and see if we can make any progress. We are worried that a Gorilla may be injured, or worse that other Gorillas were killed and we don’t know about it. Although no more bodies have been found. You may know that Gorillas are identified by their nose print. The photo below shows the notebook that I always carry with me that has the nose prints of all the families that I protect from my patrol post.
Here is a map, which has been used before on this blog, but for those of you who do not know where Bukima is. Rubiga was killed south west of here.
And here is a photo I took about 3 weeks ago of the Kabirizi family. Those were happier days for them.
Augustin
Rubiga, the murdered adult female from the Kabirizi family, was buried on Monday at Rumangabo in Virunga National Park, alongside other gorillas. An autopsy was carried out on her body, the two bullets removed, and then we said farewell. These photos are horrible. But it is the reality of what the Gorillas and the Rangers have been through since Friday. It is important that the world sees. I do not want to offend or upset, but it is what is happening. First the Rangers had to move Rubiga from where she was found shot dead.
Then they built a wooden stretcher to carry her down the mountain.
And we carried her towards Rumangabo… where she will rest in peace.
We have found 24 members of the Kabirizi family so far - out of 32. The family, which had moved from the Gatovu patrol post area back to the Bukima patrol post area in the Gorilla Sector, had been located but we are still carrying out a head count. At the moment 24 Gorillas have been counted, which means 8 are missing. But the count is by no means over and we are hopeful we will find them all. We want to physically see all of the gorillas - and also do a nest count. The Bukima rangers have taken over the work, and actually they know the family very well because Kabirizi is often in their area. Thank you for all your support and donations during this time. From all of us rangers. Paulin
I have just heard that the Kabirizi gorilla family has been found by our rangers and trackers. This news has just come in and I don’t have any more details just yet, but I will post later on today. This is great news, but I must confirm the numbers to see that the remaining 32 family members are well. We also need to see what effect the traumatic killing of Rubiga has had on the family.
Kabirizi - we hope his family is intact
Ndakasi being bottle fed by his surrogate parent
Ranger patrols have still not been able to find the 32 members of the Kabirizi family. This is the family that Rubiga belonged to, who was killed on Friday. This is very distressing. I will keep you posted on this.
Here is Kabarizi about 2 months ago. Ndakasi is doing well. He is still with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project people and being seen to. He is eating and stable. Thank you for all your support. |
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