Gorilla Protection

In January 1988 Phil visited the Rugabo Mountain Gorilla family with my father, Sylvestre, who was then head of the Jomba patrol post. Phil got in touch through the blog, and sent along these photos.

Phil and my father, Sylvestre Mburanumwe. In 1988 there were not many visitors to DR Congo to see gorillas. People still did not know if there were habituated gorillas here.

This is Jomba patrol post. It has changed a little bit since then - there is now a sort of welcome centre in the middle. Sabinyo volcano rises up to the right, with Mugahinga and Muhabura volcanoes in the background.

A tracker with a young gorilla.

Not much has changed in 20 years at Jomba. The lady on the right, Micheline, is the widow of a Ranger called Gachuma. He died during fighting between rebels and the army at Kibati in 1996. The girl on the left is the daughter of a Ranger called Sebagabo. He died of old age.

At Jomba. That is my sister on the far left in blue.

And here is Rugabo, the Silverback, in all his glory. He was killed in 1994 by poachers.

Rugabo, as you know, is the first family to be habituated in DR Congo in 1984 by Conrad Aveling and my father. At the time of Phil’s visit Rugabo was also called Marcel - he had 2 names. One given by Conrad for habituation purposes, and one given by us.

Rugabo was the name of a king who lived in Rutshuru, just north of our park station at Rumangabo. We gave the Silverback this name to show the king he needed to protect the gorillas, and to show the Congolese people that the gorillas belong to them.

Rugabo was also a king who loved nature. He used to help us catch poachers and bring them to the station. Today sadly there is not the same level of collaboration with the local communities.

Rugabo. In 1988 we had still not yet started naming each individual Mountain Gorilla. We usually just named the Silverback. It was in 1997 when we started monitoring them that we gave them all names.

These are the only pictures we actually have of Rugabo. So thank you Phil for sending them to us!

Remember Rugabo had 4 sons: Lulengo, Pili-Pili, Mareru & Mvuyekure. We have not seen Mvuyekure for some time and believe he was the other Silverback, with Karema, that was killed in January 2007. To read more about all our habituated Mountain Gorillas click here.

A juvenile in Rugabo family.

Also, today on our BBC Diary they put up a link of some videos that Diddy and I shot in December. There is one that is funny with Diddy imitating gorilla sounds. And I am also talking about Kadogo, my favorite gorilla. Go to the link and you will be able to watch us. BBC did lots of editing that we are not able to do here. Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, gorilla, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Pili-Pili is one of the four sons of Rugabo. His name means “Pepper” - he was given this because as an infant he was quite feisty.

We started monitoring Pili-Pili in 1997, when he was part of the Lulengo family, that had 12 individuals at the time. Lulengo is his brother.

1998 was a tumultuous year. On 15 January Pili-Pili had an interaction with Lulengo and split with 5 individuals to form his own family - these were 3 adult females: Bagenzi, Amahoro and Mahane and 2 juveniles: Birori and Gasigwa. Shortly after an adult female, Mwirakazi, joined Pili-Pili after he had an interaction with Ruzirabwoba.

Then a few months later the 4 adult females disappeared from his family, and Birori and Gasigwa were killed by armed men.

Pili-Pili

From 1999 to 2000 we didn’t see Pili-Pili (the civil war was going on) but during this time he managed to gain another family. We do not know how or from whom.

In 2002 Mapuwa fought with Pili-Pili. Mapuwa took 3 individuals, and forced Pili-Pili to leave the family unit and become solitary.

2002-2007: Pili-Pili roamed solitary. He tried to win over females to form a family, but was unsuccessful. During this time we monitored Pili-Pili and the other solitaries. We need to do this so that the day there is an interaction and individuals are taken by another Silverback, we know the Silverback.

In February this year Pili-Pili had an interaction with Mapuwa that lasted 3 days. Pili-Pili finally got a family again: 2 adult females Mafaze and Maganya, and a sub-adult female Bavanyuma.

Mafaze the adult female. She has never had any children which is unusual, so we think she is sterile.

In August Pili-Pili and Lulengo had a fierce interaction. Lulengo won and took Pili-Pili’s family.

Pili-Pili is solitary once more.

Lulengo won the last battle, but will he be able to hang on to his family?

If you want to see more about the gorilla families, click here.

Diddy & Innocent

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

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