Gorilla Protection

Please meet Augustin Kambale, head of the Bukima patrol post next to Camp Karema. Augustin is 30 years old and has been a Ranger since 1989 during which time he has always worked in the Mikeno sector protecting Mountain Gorillas. Here he talks about his work protecting these wonderful animals. Over to you Augustin…

Update: As some of you are having problems with the video, I’m going to repost it now. 

Technorati : bukima, congo, drc, iccn, mikeno, ranger, virunga, wildlifedirect

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I have been asked many questions about the four missing Mountain Gorillas by concerned friends around the world. As you’ll remember, during the rebellion in December and January, two Gorillas were killed. Subsequently, my Rangers carried out extensive searches to establish the safety of the remaining Gorillas. Back on February 12, I reported on the status of the Gorillas: The impact of the rebellion had been 2 confirmed killed and 4 missing (3 Silverbacks and 1 female).

Rangers have been searching since then, but have not been able to find them. I am fearing the worst for those Gorillas, although I would not like to come to any conclusion before we have exhausted the search. For that reason, I and my Rangers are going to carry out one last intensive search, using five extra trackers hired through the WildlifeDirect donations, and come to a conclusion after that. I will post this information as soon as it is done.

This monitoring work is important for other reasons as well. It allows us to focus our Gorilla Protection activities to the most important areas, and acts as an early warning surveillance exercise. We need to keep a permanent presence of wildlife protection officers in the park to demonstrate our commitment to saving these Gorillas. Camp Karema is a very important part of this work, and has been developed thanks to the support we’ve received through WildlifeDirect. Many thanks, again, for your support in helping us to make this possible.

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, ranger, virunga, wildlifedirect

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We are making progress on setting up Camp Karema at the Bukima patrol post. It takes about 3 hours to get there from Goma, on a pretty rough road, and then a very rough road. Some would call it a track. It is not uncommon to have more than one puncture on any one journey, and if you have shakey bones I would not even attempt it!

This was when the tents and beds were being taken up to Camp Karema from Goma. This was done with Rob Muir, from Frankfurt Zoological Society. At this point the truck is stuck and the white FZS vehicle is trying to squeeze past.

Then the truck got completely stuck and tried turning round.

At least it managed that… and then we had to carry everything that last stretch!

Technorati : bukima, congo, drc, iccn, mikeno, mountain gorilla, wildlifedirect

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