Gorilla Protection

Every 3 months we hold a meeting at Rumangabo with local leaders and authorities to talk about protecting Virunga National Park and working with the local populations.

This committee is called Concd which stands for Convergence pour la Conservation et le Developement, Convergence for Conservation and Development. So it is a forum if you like, and traditional chiefs, military heads, police chiefs and Rangers all come together to address the important issues. This is a very important aspect of protecting the park as communication is paramount to any success and diminishing threats from poachers and charcoal burners and others. We find solutions to conflict.

Here are photos from the most recent meeting. You can see me addressing the group (in the second photo), and also the military, police and local population representatives. At the end we all had a group photo. I am at the front next to the police chief.

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I took these two photos at Rumangabo, my sector headquarters. We have workers who maintain the park station and carry out other activities. They fulfill a vital role. Up until recently they did not have uniforms, but recently I was able to purchase some. Here are the before and after photos!

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Last week I went to Kinshasa our capital to receive an award from Cites for Bravery in Law Enforcement. Cites is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and an international agreement with governments that was set up in the 1970s. It aims to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of these animals and plants.

Basically Cites is THE convention on trade on endangered species and my country joined the convention in 1976. The convention is relevant to Mountain Gorillas given that there has been trade in baby Mountain Gorillas.

I traveled to Mbobolumene which is 135km north of Kinshasa to receive the award. My superiors from ICCN also came with me, including Pasteur Cosma, the Director of ICCN, Dr Muamba and Benoit Kisuki, the Assistant Directors in Kinshasa. I am very very proud to receive this award. Thank you Cites!

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Here is a picture of my son Timothee that I wanted to share with you. He was born last September and is my youngest child! Paulin

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My Rangers in the Mikeno Sector have been conducting regular monitoring activities of the Kabirizi family since the killing of Rubiga on 9th June. The monitoring was at first very difficult, and remains so, because Kabirizi is being very protective of his family after the unprovoked attack. This is normal. However, I can now say that there is still 1 adult female missing from the family. She is called Lesenjina. She has a baby called Mutazimiza who has been seen, and he is being transported by his older brother Tumaini.

We do not know for sure what has happened to Lesenjina. We have not found a body so we cannot know if she has died or disappeared. So we continue to look.

Also, you may remember I blogged a while ago about 4 missing Mountain Gorillas in the Mikeno sector. Two gorillas have been found, which is fantastic. The two still missing are a couple, called the Lulengo couple. They have not been seen since January when we had all the trouble with rebels.

Here are some photos of the Kabirizi family that were also taken a week ago at the same time as the baby pictures I posted last week.

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Between 14th March and 31st May I received the following donations. I am posting these details from 14th March, because that was when I last provided a report to all you generous people.

Open donations: $11,081.91

Wall Maintenance - 1

Uniform for Rangers - 1

Patrol Boots - 2

Patrol Rations - 3

Patrol Tents - 1

And for the month of June donations were:

Open donations: $1,485.74

Salary bonuses - 2

Patrol Rations - 2

Ranger uniform - 1

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

From me and my Rangers

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I wanted to introduce some of the Rangers at Bukima who work in protecting the Mountain Gorillas by going out each day to check the families are safe and well and removing snares laid by poachers. These snares are not necessarily laid specifically for gorillas, but gorillas also run the risk of walking in them and getting caught so they have to be dismantled.

You already know Augustin Kambale, head of the patrol post at Bukima. He posted previously about his recent wedding and he also was one of the Rangers who carried Rubiga off the mountain after she was found dead.

You also know Jean-Marie. He takes over from Augustin when Augustin is on leave or sick.

This is Frederic.

Here he is with the Humba family on Saturday.

And this is Cyril.

And Abaruwma in the foreground, with Gerome and Desire behind him.

Here they are taking the GPS coordinates as they enter the park. This wall you see is the dry stone wall that was built in 2004 by the local communities to delineate the park. This is the wall that has to be repaired when elephants and buffalo crash through it to get to the crops in the fields.

And here is Frederic in the background with a journalist and photographer from the Washington Post who were visiting at the weekend.

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On Saturday the Rangers at Bukima - Jean-Marie, Frederic, Gerome and others - went to track the Humba family. The family were about 2 hours from the patrol post, up at about 2,000 meters (that is about 6,000 feet). The favorite food of Mountain Gorillas is bamboo, and this is found at high altitude. A Silverback eats about 30 kilos a day - but this food has a very high water content.

Humba is always a very calm family. I have mentioned before that Humba means Placid or Calm. Humba is a large Silverback as you can see. He is the brother of Rugendo, but is much bigger. He was enjoying the sunshine and his family and seemed not to even notice the presence of the Rangers, let alone the little one sitting on top of him!

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I just got hold of the photos taken on Sunday of the Kabirizi family. This is the newborn I was talking about. We do not know if the baby is male or female, but he or she was born after Ndakasi, the orphan, about a month and a half ago. This baby will breast feed for up to 3 years. The mother - who as I mentioned yesterday is called Mahisho - walked right by the Rangers and they were able to take these photos.

The Rangers took a while to find the family on Sunday as Kabirizi had moved a lot in the early morning. When Rangers and trackers go out to find the gorilla families, they must first find the nests where the gorillas slept the night before and then track from there. This can involve going up and down and up and down for a long time, until suddenly you come across the family.

I am happy to share this good news and photos. Paulin

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The Kabirizi family of gorillas has a new baby. The mother is Mahisho, which means “she who lowers her eyes“. The baby has not yet been named, but will be named soon by the Rangers at Rumangabo. This is wonderful news after all the bad news that there has been lately. I will be getting photos of the baby in a couple of days and will post them up. Hopefully on Wednesday.

I am also happy to tell you that Ntibahanana, the baby that was ill after showing discoloration of the hair, is also doing well. He still has discoloration, but is eating well and keeping up with the group. He was seen yesterday, Sunday, by the Rangers and that is also very positive.

Here are some photos of the Kabirizi group. The silverback, Kabirizi, is still being very guarded and showing more signs of protectiveness of his family since the horrendous killing of Rubiga. This is normal. He also seems to have had a fight with a silverback from the Manyaga family. This family also lives near Bukima patrol post in the Mikeno sector and is made up of 5 silverbacks and 1 female. This is unusual. But all the silverbacks used to be part of the Kabirizi family and left when they became adult. They need to form their own families.

When silverbacks enter the same territory as each other and come across each other, this often results in confrontation. Fortunately the Rangers and Monitors say that no injuries by any of the silverbacks have been sustained.

More coming soon… Thank you for all your comments. Paulin

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