Archive for September, 2007
I just got an email from Paulin Ngobobo, translated below. As you know he used to be the head of the Gorilla Sector, and was switched with Director Norbert Mushenzi at the beginning of August. Indeed, Paulin started this blog back in January and has been a key figure in the protection of DR Congo’s Mountain Gorillas for many many months. Here is his message: Hi Samantha, Sorry for this late reply, we were in a park without an internet connection. I agree that it would be interesting to post a few lines but not sure exactly what. This is what I propose: Following the destabilizing maneuvers by the conservation enemies who destroy the park and of which I was a victim, it pleased my superiors to transfer me for a period of three months to the northern sector of the Virungas as the head of the station of Mutsora. At the moment I am not in the country because I am participating in training on the management of wetlands in Nairobi where 9 member countries of the Nile Basin Initiative are represented (DR Congo, Burundi, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia and Lesotho). The gorilla monitoring team with whom I worked continues to do a good job but in very difficult conditions due to the current security situation. Indeed, what is happening right now in the southern sector of Virunga national park, and especially in the Gorilla sector is very worrying and concerning because this sector is strongly militarized so that the movements of rangers are dramatically reduced. This increases the risk for these gorillas who cannot benefit from regular tracking. In addition, the possibility that these gorillas will be caught between the crossfire during the exchanges/conflict between the military and the rebels of L.Nkunda is something to worry about. Please do not forget to thank everyone for the support and sympathy shown during the difficult times and to the present day.
Paulin representing DR Congo in Nairobi
With fellow delegates, far left Original version: “Salut Samantha, Excusez pour cette réponse tardive on était dans un parc dépourvu de connexion internet. Je suis d’avis qu’il serait intéressant de poster quelques lignes dans ce sens là mais quoi exactement. Voici ce que je vous propose : Suite aux manœuvres de déstabilisation dont j’ai été victime de la part des ennemis de la conservation qui détruisent le parc, il avait plu à ma hiérarchie de m’affecter pour une période de trois mois dans le secteur nord du par des Virunga comme chef de station de Mutsora. En ce moment je suis absent du pays car je participe à une formation sur la gestion des terres humides à Nairobi où neuf pays membres de l’initiative du bassin du Nil sont représentés (RDCongo, Burundi, Egypte, Tanzanie, Kenya, Soudan, Ouganda, Ethiopie et Lesotho). Toutefois l’équipe de suivi des gorilles avec laquelle je travaillais continue à faire du bon travail mais dans des conditions très difficiles liées au contexte sécuritaire du moment. En effet, ce qui se passe en ce moment dans le secteur sud du parc national des Virunga et spécialement dans le secteur à Gorilles est très inquiétant et préoccupant car ce secteur est fortement militarisé à tel enseigne que les mouvements des gardes sont sensiblement réduits, ce qui augmente le risque pour ces gorilles qui ne jouissent presque plus d’un suivi régulier. Aussi l’éventualité que ces gorilles soient pris entre deux feux pendant les accrochages/affrontements entre les militaires et les insurgés de L. Nkunda est à craindre. N’oubliez pas de remercier tout le monde pour le soutien et la sympathie manifestes a mon endroit lors des situations difficiles et jusqu’en ce moment.”
This is Samantha. I am currently in Rumangabo with Director Mushenzi, Innocent, Diddy, and the other rangers.
Innocent is with 2 journalists, one from BBC radio and the other from Reuters TV. That is part of my job - to bring journalists to get coverage of this frustrating situation for the rangers and the threats to the Mountain Gorillas. Diddy is in a meeting with other rangers for the operational plan for 2008 for the southern sector of Virunga National Park. While it seems to me that it is impossible to plan anything in DR Congo, you still have to. And seeing as they cannot get into the Gorilla Sector at the moment they are planning ahead on other issues.
Diddy, far right, with other rangers. Next to him is Augustin Kambale, chief of Bukima patrol post.
Innocent at the gorilla graves trying to get the message out I have just spoken to Augustin Rwimo, the head of the patrol post at Jomba. He is here at Rumangabo. He just spoke to one of his men at the Jomba patrol post and confirmed to me that the Rugendo family, Mapuwa family and solitary Ruzirabwoba are still being tracked daily by the rangers at Jomba. The rangers are still being allowed to do their job. It is my impression that following the negative press coverage that the rebels got when Karema was killed in January, they don’t want any more gorillas to die on their watch. But the rangers say all the gorillas of the 2 families are well and in good health, which at this point is a good bit of news.
Rwimo phones Jomba to get the latest from the rangers at Jomba who are able to track gorillas while rebels still control the area.
Meanwhile, Norbert is still pushing hard behind the scenes to get the rangers back in to the Gorilla Sector.
Diddy has given me these photos of the Mapuwa family. Linda at G4G will especially be happy as she knows Mambo. These photos were taken in August during the census done by Diddy and Innocent.
Mambo
And Bikenge. Diddy says, “Bikenge and Mambo are always playing together, especially hide and seek. Once they start it goes on for a long time.”
Today we buried the dead infant gorilla. We named her Mufabure. This means “Killed without reason“.
Mufabure is buried next to the others at Rumangabo, the headquarters for the southern sector of Virunga National Park. She joins the members of the Rugendo family that were massacred in July: Senkwekwe, Neza, Safari and Mburanumwe. She also joins Nsekuye, executed in June.
May she rest in peace.
Mufabure - next to the other gorillas, also killed without reason
The culprits have yet to be found
MONUC at Rumangabo before leaving to Bukima
Beds have also been vandalized.
Unfortunately we were at Bukima a short time and I was not able to track any gorillas. This situation is not really getting any better and we still cannot go back there. It was only safe for me because I was with MONUC.
Innocent
This is Samantha. Here is the link to the Al Jazeera report that Diddy and Innocent referred to last week when the TV crew visited Rumangabo. It aired earlier today and I just saw it is on YouTube. I haven’t actually seen it yet. Connection not good enough.
Yesterday we arrested two men who are suspected of being part of a gorilla trafficking ring here in DR Congo. Following several weeks of intelligence work - which I cannot go into for security reasons - we infiltrated this ring, who said they had two gorillas for sale, at a cost of $8,000 each. We wanted to smash this ring and find the culprits. This work has been instigated by our Director Norbert Mushenzi, as part of the emergency program. He has been with ICCN for nearly 35 years so is very experienced. Unfortunately, this is what we found. A dead female gorilla of about 3 or 4 years old. Decomposition as you can see has already begun. We do not know for sure if she is a Lowland Gorilla or Mountain Gorilla, because her head is already deformed (and that is one of the main ways we can tell the difference). But we suspect that she could be a Mountain Gorilla, because of the location of the suspected traffickers, ie near the Mikeno Sector. The two men who have been arrested are being questioned and evidence is being gathered. What we fear is that the gorilla is either a.) a wild Mountain Gorilla from DR Congo or Rwanda or b.) a habituated gorilla from the Mikeno Sector that we have not been able to track for over 3 weeks now. We simply have no way of knowing. We also have reason to believe that the ring has another gorilla for sale too. We are very worried.
The gorilla was found wrapped in cloth, that you can still see on the head
We think she has been dead for about a week
Decomposition is already advanced
Here we are trying to identify her gender
Director Mushenzi coordinating the investigation in his office at Rumangabo Diddy Update: Following questioning of the 2 suspects by a lawyer hired by ICCN we can assume that the dead female infant gorilla is indeed a Mountain Gorilla. The suspects said she was taken from the Mikeno Sector, which is home to the Mountain Gorillas. In addition, for her to have been a Lowland Gorilla she would have had to come from Kahuzi Biega national park, and this just does not make sense. This is quite far away, in Congo terms, and the infant was found a stone’s throw (10km or so) from the Gorilla Sector of Virunga National Park. This brings our death toll this year for Mountain Gorillas to 10. Now we need to establish where she was taken from: one of the habituated families or one of the wild families. To do this we need to first get into the Gorilla Sector. Diddy Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, rumangabo, wildlifedirect
This is Samantha from WildlifeDirect.
It has been a few days since Diddy and Innocent wrote about the security situation in the Mikeno sector. Innocent’s computer cable has burned out, and Diddy cannot get online at Rumangabo.
The situation remains the same. You have all been following it very closely in the international media - where it has been reported on extensively. We are still waiting to hear what happens between the DR Congo army (FARDC) and dissident General Laurent Nkunda. The DR Congo government wants Nkunda and his men to go to “brassage“. This as you know is when the rebels get sent to a “brassage centre” somewhere in the country, where they spent at least 3 months. What happens during these 3 months is that the soldiers are counted, identified, tested for their abilities and issued with a military card. Then the soldiers are deployed in the country, to a location as dictated by the government.
This process was set up in 2004 as a way to allow the country to move forward toward peace. All groups need to go through “brassage” - in other words all the different armed groups of the political parties in the country. Even the regular army does too. And most groups have indeed been through “brassage“.
So this is what the government here wants Nkunda’s men to do. And Nkunda and his men don’t want to - because they don’t want to be sent just anywhere in the country, for a variety of reasons.
Where this will end I do not know. The ICCN Rangers continue to maintain their apolitical stance - this is very important. ICCN is lobbying hard to get back into the Mikeno Sector - but Diddy and Innocent cannot really talk about this for obvious reasons.
On another note Paulin is still in the northern sector of Virunga National Park, based at Mutsora (about 1 1/2 hours east of Beni). He was sent up there about 2 months ago now - as part of the switch with Norbert Mushenzi who came down south. In theory this switch was for a 3-month period - for Director Mushenzi to manage the emergency program as a result of the July massacre. The Mikeno sector has now been out of Ranger control for exactly 3 weeks. So this in itself has put the brakes on the emergency program.
So that is where we are at. I hope it provides some clarity.
Thank you for all your comments and support.
If you have ever had the chance to see him, you will never forget. Kabirizi is our least habituated Mountain Gorilla Silverback in the Mikeno Sector, and the leader of 30 individuals: 3 Blackbacks, 6 Adult Females, 3 Sub-Adult Males, 2 Sub-Adult Females, 9 Juveniles, and 7 Babies. He has the largest family by far in the sector. His family was also the victim of attack in June, when a female was executed in the back of the head, and her orphaned baby left clinging to her breast. This orphan, Kabila, is now doing well in Goma under the supervision of vets and rangers.
Kabirizi Kabirizi is named after an ICCN Director who died in a traffic accident in the late 1990s. Kabirizi was not born into a habituated family of gorillas; he was a wild gorilla who became head of the family in 1998. That is when he was given his name. The Kabirizi family used to be the Ndungutse family - as you know Mountain Gorilla families are named after the dominant Silverback. But Ndungutse was assassinated in 1997 after being caught in crossfire between the DR Congo army and Rwandan rebels near the Bukima patrol post. Ndungutse was the son of Zunguruka - who died of old age. Zunguruka means “He who walks in circles”. So why the name? Well apparently when he was being habituated in 1986 he used to walk in circles… Ndungutse had a younger brother, Salama - that means “Peace” in Swahili. Salama was calm and kind, and always brought up the rear of the group, with Ndungutse in front. In 1994 Kabirizi, who was then totally wild, solitary and wanting females, fought with Salama as he tried to steal some of Ndungutse’s females. The interaction was vicious, and Salama later died of his wounds. So when Ndungutse was killed by bullets in 1997, there were some 24 gorillas in the family of which 2 were Blackbacks: Karateka and Buhanga. There was also a very large adult female, Nsekuye, who did not want to be led by either of these young males. We think she just felt as if she was the oldest of the group and they were simply too young. So Nsekuye left the family with all the females, and Buhanga, the older of the two Blackbacks, left with Karateka and the young gorillas. Soon after, in 1998, Munyaga, then a solitary Silverback, took over Nsekuye and her females. At the same time Kabirizi took over the young gorillas from Karateka and Buhanga. Karateka and Buhanga became solitary. A few months later Kabirizi stole the females from Munyaga - therefore cementing his dominion over Ndungutse’s former family.
Kabirizi shows his strength So today Kabirizi would appear to be all powerful and unbeatable. But this is not necessarily the case. When a Silverback has a large family, he becomes scared because he has a lot to lose - he is vulnerable and needs to work hard to protect what he considers to be his. Kabirizi showed his strength when he acquired his family, but now he is afraid. When Karateka and Buhanga want to fight with him he runs away. We noticed this in August when Kabirizi and his family covered an unusually great distance to get away from Karateka. There are other solitary Silverbacks in the vicinity too - Bukima, Mareru, Pili-pili. These solitaries want a family, and they are willing to fight for it. This is how it all works however - should gorillas not interact and change females, inbreeding would become a major problem. Kabirizi still likes to show his strength nevertheless. Once when I was observing him he pulled a tree down on top of my head and gave me a nose bleed. This kind of thing happens sometimes, but it is normal for us because it is our job. Another time a ranger had a watch - the make was Disco - and it had flashing numbers. Kabirizi grabbed the ranger’s wrist and broke the watch with his fingers, smashing the glass. Then he just slumped away. This story is to be continued.
Ruzizi, the older brother of Kabila who is orphaned in Goma
Kangugo on top of Kitagenda, in full play
Bageni - this means Visitor in Swahili
Adult Female Mahisho
Mutazimiza - the orphan in the family whose hands and feet were bare of skin. She was showing signs of improvement but we have not been able to check up on her in over 3 weeks.
Fooling around… other individuals of the Kabirizi family Diddy
Since we started writing reports in Bukima at the end of August, a lot has happened. On Monday it will be 3 weeks since the Gorilla Sector was taken by the rebels.
Here are the results of the census we did in August 2007 of the habituated Mountain Gorillas of DR Congo, listed by location, with an update of the death of the newborn in the Munyaga family (2 Sep 07).
Please note: Silverback - SB; Blackback - BB; Adult Female - ADF; Sub-Adult Male - SAM; Sub-Adult Female - SAF; Juvenile - Juv
Jomba Patrol Post Kwitonda - in Rwanda since Oct 2004 Mapuwa - 12 (1 SB, 5 ADF, 2 Juv, 4 Babies). Note: the wound in July on upper lip has healed well. Lulengo - 4 (1 SB, 2 ADF, 1 SAF). Note: SB seriously wounded during retrieval of Pili-pili’s individuals on 23 Aug 07. Ruzirabwoba - 1 (1 SB) Mareru - 1 (1 SB)
Bikenge Patrol Post Rugendo - 5 (3 BB, 2 Juv). Note: Noel’s wound is healing. Bavukahe’s left foot is not right. Skeleton of ADF Macibiri found 24 Aug 07. Pili-pili - 1 (1 SB)
Bukima Patrol Post Kabirizi - 31 (1 SB, 3 BB, 6 ADF, 3 SAM, 2 SAF, 9 Juv, 7 Babies). Note: Mutazimiza the orphan suffers. Palms of hands and feet are stripped of skin. Visit of Dr Jack. Humba - 9 (1 SB, 2 ADF, 2 SAM, 2 Juv, 2 Babies) Munyaga - 6 (3 SB, 1 BB, 1 ADF). Note: The baby born 21 Aug 07 died on 2 Sep 07 following an interaction of the 3 SB. To date we do not know if the fighting was part of a leadership struggle of the family or if it was for copulation. Karateka - 1 (1 SB) Bukima - 1 (1 SB)
Gatovu Patrol Post Buhanga - 1 (1 SB)
Total No. Habituated Mountain Gorillas: 72 13 SB, 7 BB, 16 ADF, 5 SAM, 3 SAF, 15 Juv, 13 Babies Additional Notes: - Interaction between Kabirizi and the solitary Karateka on 23 and 24 Aug 07 in the sector of Kangugo and Bizenga. The Kabirizi family risked covering abnormal distances during these 2 days to avoid the attacker. - The baby Ntaribi of the ADF Macibiri has still not been found. So as not to lose the individuals of the habituated families, it is desirable that the solitary SBs are also followed. For example in the recent case of Lulengo. - The SB Lulengo disappeared in January 07 with the ADF Ruvebo. Alas only he did not come back with her.
Signed: Head of Tourism - Mwanaki Tshongo (Diddy) Head of Monitoring - Mburanumwe Nzabonimpa (Innocent)
The rebels have consolidated their position in the Gorilla Sector. Rwimo told us that they have made Jomba their Etat Major, which we think can be translated as High Command. This means that it is a focal point for storing material and supplies, and deploying rebel soldiers. In other words an operational base. The rebels have also brought cattle to Bikenge, the other patrol post. This is not good because it means that they intend to stay for a while. Which means we cannot do our work. The army still controls Bukima and won’t let Rangers anywhere near the patrol post. If Rangers try to get close they are robbed. Eye witnesses tell me that the army have dug up all the Rangers’ crops near the patrol post (potatoes, beans etc) and destroyed the fields. The army personnel in our country are rarely paid, and so they steal to get food. This news needs to get out to the world. We know from your comments that you are all following events here in DR Congo. The Mapuwa and Rugendo families are still being tracked, as is Ruzirabwoba. This is what the rebels are letting the Rangers at Jomba do. But we heard that on 13 September the rebels brought 10 tourists to visit the Mapuwa family. Our rules say that for a family of 12 you should only let 8 people visit at any one time. The tourists came through Bunagana which is just north of the Gorilla Sector on the Ugandan border. The tourists would have paid up to $500 each to the rebels. This sort of uncontrolled visit to the Mountain Gorillas is totally unacceptable. Yesterday a TV crew from Al Jazeera came to the park headquarters at Rumangabo. They interviewed us about the security situation, and our inability to track and protect the Mountain Gorillas. We also showed them the remains of Machibiri, the fifth gorilla that was killed in the July massacre. We also showed them the graves of the Rugendo Silverback and females, which are at Rumangabo. This is part of our campaign to let the world know we are powerless at the moment to protect these animals.
We were asked to stand in line with the Advance Force for a shot
Then we were interviewed (here Diddy is being interviewed by Yvonne the presenter)
And again. This is just behind the main building at Rumangabo, on the track leading to the Chief Warden’s house.
With the Advance Force next to us. Elie is on the right, bending over. We do not know if you have Al Jazeera on your television. But Yvonne told me it will go on next week. Diddy & Innocent
I was expecting Rwimo today but he did not make it to Rumangabo. But I did find this picture of Ruzirabwoba.
Welcome home The security situation remains the same as yesterday. Still no change on ceasefire. Still no tracking of gorillas apart from Mapuwa and Rugendo. Still frustrated. Another worrying aspect of not being able to track gorillas is that you don’t know if any of the animals have got caught in snares. As part of patrols Rangers remove snares, and sometimes intervene if a gorilla gets caught in one. For example gorillas sometimes get snares caught round their wrist. They cannot remove it themselves - instead of removing the snare they tighten it. This is how Karema, the Silverback killed in January, lost his hand as an infant. I hope to bring more news tomorrow. Diddy |
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