Gorilla Protection

This is Balemba. Great news: the villager that went missing last month has finally reappeared. He showed up dehydrated, thin, dirty, and barefoot, but alive!

This is what he told me:

 

Having walked from Rumangabo to his village in Bukima, he got started working in his crop field. After a couple hours, two young men with guns approached him and asked him why there weren’t any other villagers around. He told them that he was just there earlier than the others.

 

The men then became threatening and took the food he had with him (sweet potato with beans). They ordered him to follow them, taking him to an area near the Bukima Patrol Post. For three days, he was subjected to interrogations and beatings.

 

Once they were satisfied that he actually knew nothing, they transferred him from Bukima to Bikenge. There, he witnessed widespread poaching and saw other villagers forced to work for the rebels. At one point he also saw a group of gorillas in the forest (Diddy thinks it was the Kabirizi group). This was the first time he had seen gorillas in their natural habitat.

 

Kwibesha from the Kabirizi group

  

He was forced by the rebels to bring 200 liters of water every day from a spring several hundred meters into the forest. He survived on potatoes and slept in an abandoned hut, with the rebels in their tents nearby.

 

He did the best he could to hide his fear and fatigue from the rebels. In the end, he was finally freed because he was smart enough to do everything the rebels ordered him to do. Oddly enough, the rebels asked him to come back from time to time to bring them cigarettes. They even offered him a job as a tracker, with the promise that he could one day become a park ranger. He of course declined the offer and left, eventually finding his way to the displaced people’s camp at Kabaya.

 

He is still very traumatized by his ordeal, but hopefully he will get better soon.

 

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This a major breakthrough. Honore Mashagiro has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the mass killing of Mountain Gorillas in June and July Last year. He was in a position of great responsibility, and allegedly used his authority to promote the destruction of forest for charcoal to make money. This threatened the gorilla habitat, so when the rangers tried to protect the forest, he allegedly orchestrated the gorilla massacres to discourage them. Many of you will remember those terrible days when we discovered the burned remains of Safari, and the the bodies of the rest of the Rugendo family, including Senkwekwe, the silverback.

Senkekwe, shortly after the Massacre in July last year

The charges against Mashagiro were brought against him by the state, through ICCN, the wildlife authority, and is testimony that the rule of law can be brought into effect, even when it concerns powerful people. It is definitely a moment of hope for all of us, but obviously we await the outcome of a trial before saying any more.

Results like this take time, but it is so important never to give up. We don’t yet have all the details, but will update you in the coming days.

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National Geographic Magazine is currently visiting us in Virunga National Park to cover our story - that is us, the Rangers. Mark the writer and Brent the photographer are spending a few weeks here. We think the story will finally come out in about 6 to 8 months.

Coincidentally Brent is also the photographer who was here last July when Rugendo and his family were massacred. So he was kind enough to bring us some photos that we can use on this blog. Here are some of our favorites. Diddy & Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, national geographic, wildlifedirect

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We were again looking through pictures with Samantha - in actual fact to find pictures for CBS 60 Minutes. We were meant to go to Rumangabo today but fighting has broken out at Rugari, about 12km south of Rumangabo, so we are stuck in Goma. Rugari is at the bottom of the hill of the Gorilla Sector - there has been sporadic fighting there over the last 3 months that we have blogged about before.

We thought you would all like this picture of Nsekuye and her infant Kabila that has not been posted before on the blog. Nsekuye was the adult female shot and killed in June. Kabila is one of the orphans in Goma, that you can see pictures of here and also on Dr Lucy Spelman’s blog.

Nsekuye means “the saviour of a family”. She was given this name because she seemed very intelligent when she was born.

We do not know exactly how old Nsekuye (also spelled N’sekuye) was but she was old because she had had several children, including the adult female Janja and the blackback Kayenga.

When Nsekuye had been carried down the hill she was brought to Rumangabo for an autopsy by the MGVP vets. Then she was buried in our gorilla cemetery. (I, Innocent, am on the left in this photo).

Janja, taken about a year ago

The security situation remains the same as you can see. We have been working in Goma since Monday with Jean Bosco, Balemba (the accountant who runs the Rumangabo Youth Alliance blog) and the administrator from FZS to get our operational plan together for 2008. We are still waiting for a solution to the conflict so we can go back in and do our jobs. Unfortunately there is no more news from Patrice - in other words he has not been able to get back into the Gorilla Sector again since November 12th.

Diddy & Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Finally some good news everyone! We have just spoken to Ranger Patrice Tuyisenge. He told us that on 12th November the rebels who control our Gorilla Sector let him go in and see what he could find.

He saw 2 families that he said are the Humba and Kabirizi families. The Humba family was very near the Bukima patrol post.

Humba the Silverback and chief of his family, taken in August

Patrice does not know how to identify each Mountain Gorilla by the noseprint, and this also takes a lot of time, but we are confident by what he described to us that the Humba family and the Kabirizi family are doing well. Humba has 9 individuals, and Kabirizi 31. Patrice was not able to tell us exactly the number of gorillas he saw in each group, but for Humba it was roundabout the right number, and for Kabirizi too.

This is very very good news and we are very very happy to hear this.

Mahindure, a juvenile in the Humba family, taken in August

Patrice is a Ranger usually based at Jomba. He is one of the Rangers who for a couple of weeks tracked the Mapuwa and Rugendo families and the solitary Ruzirabwoba back in September. This was because the rebels let him and some others do this.

We do not know if Patrice or any other Rangers will be allowed back in to the Gorilla Sector to do any more tracking. Patrice had to go in from the Ugandan side via Bunagana. But we hope so.

We also need to get back in to complete a proper identification of these two families, and of course the other habituated Mountain Gorillas. But today this is most definitely a positive light in what has been a dark scenario for so long. We are happy to share this with you.

Diddy & Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, ranger, wildlifedirect

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Yesterday we were going through photos that we have from recent months. We came across these that have not been put up on the blog.

It is Rubiga and Ndakasi from the Kabirizi family. They are taken just two days after Ndakasi was born, on 22nd April 2007. Ndakasi as you know was named after the previous head of Gorilla Monitoring who died suddenly.

Rubiga is also named after a deceased Ranger. She is a very calm adult female and takes very good care of her children.

We hope mother and baby are doing well - and we hope to be able to see them soon.

Diddy & Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, iccn, wildlifedirect

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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

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, kabirizi, wildlifedirect

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Dr Jacques arrived this morning at Bukima to check on the health of Mutazimiza from the Kabirizi Family.

He said that Mutazimiza is doing much better than he was on Monday. The soles of her feet and hands seem to have healed slightly and that she doesn’t seem to be in as much pain. You can see below the red patches on her feet, they look sore but not as bad as they did at the beginning of the week.

He therefore thinks that intervention at this stage is unnecessary and that it would be unwise to give her medication. We will still continue to monitor her progress.

The orphans in Goma are doing well, and still being monitored daily. Again Dr Jacques took some leaves with him to feed Ndeze, although not Kabila as he is still too young.

This afternoon we drove back in Rumangabo, the main station for the Southern Sector of Virunga National Park.

We will continue over the weekend to work on our reports. Although before that Innocent must now work the role of Chauffeur, and do the three hour drive there and back to Bukima with the relief guards for the Patrol Post -those who have been there deserve a much needed break.

And for those who asked yesterday, yes Ndindanyare does mean that. Ndindanyare is a very steep part of the mountain and when our ancestors used to walk in this area, they used to say this as an excuse to stop and take a breather.

Technorati : Congo, ICCN, Kabirizi, MGVP, Mikeno, Mountain Gorilla, WildlifeDirect

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Dr Jacques from MGVP came this morning to see the infant Mutazimiza. You can see him below with Innocent when we had finally reached the Kabirizi Family.

He wanted to see the infant for himself to evaluate her condition and so decide what should be done. Unfortunately Mutazimiza was hidden among the vegetation, looked after and protected by the young female Tumaini, and so it was hard for him to get a good look at her hands and feet.

He managed to get a couple of glimpses but decided to also use what footage and photos we had taken from the visits over these last two days. We were only with the Kabirizi Family for a short time, but we did manage to identify the three individuals that we had not seen these past two days; Gashangi and her two children, Kazi and Nitbahanana, and so that completes the identification of the Kabirizi Family. Tomorrow we will be going to visit the Humba Family.

Dr Jacques profited from his visit to the jungle by taking plant leaves and bamboo shoots to feed the two young orphans at MGVP in Goma; Ndeze and Kabila (not Ndasaki as has been previously reported).

He tells us that the two are doing fine, growing stronger. They’ve been on a diet of raw vegetables, fruit and milk, but now Dr Jacques wants to get them used to what they would eat naturally in the wild and so begin their reintroduction.

After we went to see the family, Dr Jacques came to Camp Bukima to look at the photos and videos that we had taken of Mutazimiza and to take them with him to make a report.

This report will help us decide as to what to do with Mutazimiza and if it is believed that her life is in danger, then the vets from MGVP will intervene.

Below is the video we gave to Dr Jacques, which shows Mutazimiza having problems with pulling the leaves off a branch to eat, and also trouble standing on her feet.

Diddy and Innocent

Technorati : Congo, DRC, ICCN, Kabirizi, MGVP, Mountain Gorilla, WildlifeDirect

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Today we have just come back from visiting the Kabirizi family. Following on from yesterday’s visit, our aim is to assess the current situation of the family and to see if there are any behaviour changes after the killing of an adult female in the beginning of June this year.

Overall, the group is doing well except, as we remarked yesterday, for the infant Mutazimiza who was orphaned after the attack.

The palms of her hands and feet are losing a lot of skin, and she is finding it difficult to walk and eat.

In the next photo you can see the blackback Bageni.

He was too curious about the camera and kept trying to charm me with his looks.

Also today, just as we left, I took this picture of the adult female Karibu and her baby Serundori, behind them is Kanyalire.

Out of a total of 31 individuals, we have still yet to photograph and identify three; the adult female Gashangi and her children, Kazi and Ntibahanana. However, we hope to complete our study on the Kabirizi Family tomorrow.

Diddy

Technorati : Congo, DRC, ICCN, Kabirizi, Mikeno, Mountain Gorilla

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