Gorilla Protection

This is Innocent. Yesterday I got a call from our rangers at the Gatovu Patrol Post. They told me that they had seen a solitary gorilla in the forest nearby. I immediately went over there to identify which individual it was.

We found the gorilla at about 10 minutes from the patrol post. I was amazed to see that it was Buhanga, the solitary silverback that had once belonged to the group now led by Kabirizi.

It was fantastic to once again see a gorilla in the wild- it was the first time since last year when the rebels took over the Mikeno Sector of the park. As you can see from the video, Buhanga has grown a lot bigger since last time I saw him!

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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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We are still waiting for news of the talks between rebels and the government.  So I wrote this about Silverbacks and sounds.

The Silverback is always the one in charge of a Mountain Gorilla family - when gorillas wake, rest, eat or sleep it is he who gives the order. He is the dominant male.

If he hasn’t said that his family can wake and move around, they will stay in their nests or nearby. When the family is resting, moving, or fighting - it is he who makes the law.

To do this he has about 16 sounds. Each one has a meaning and each individual in the group knows what he must do in response to each sound. When gorillas are copulating it is different because there are some sounds the Silverback makes just for females.

The Silverback Kasole of the Munyaga group shows his force

Each night the gorillas can sleep where they want - either on the ground or in the trees, but the Silverback is always on the ground to ensure the safety of the group. During the day the infants and the adult females with babies prefer to stay near the Silverback for protection. The others (blackbacks, sub-adult females, sub-adult males and adult females with no baby) can stray further from the Silverback.

These 16 sounds have an enormous role in the life of Mountain Gorillas, especially when they eat and move around. Because of the dense vegetation they cannot see each other so they make particular sounds to find each other.

There are sounds for: 1. When a stranger is present; 2. To announce coming rain; 3. Copulation; 4. To find a missing individual; 5. To move; 6. An individual under attack; 7. Good food. etc

It is the Silverback that makes these sounds the most. This is his role as Chief - and because he has to warn the others in case of danger.

Mawazo, also of the Munyaga group, looks on.

Why does a Silverback charge?

He may be playing, or trying to intimidate or communicating to the group that there is something abnormal.

Or it may be the beginning of an interaction. When this happens, the adult females, juveniles and babies who are close by huddle together with their bellies to the ground and their feet and hands folded under their bodies. This is to show their submission to the Silverback.

Diddy

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Still no news about a deal between the army and the rebels, but at least we can’t hear any shelling or gunfire today at Rumangabo.

We wanted to continue with another post about the Mountain Gorillas of our country, this time of Karateka, a Solitary Silverback.

Karateka is the son of Ndungutse, the Silverback who was killed in April 1997 in crossfire between the DR Congo army and Rwandan rebels near Bukima.

When Ndungutse died, Karateka - “He who practices karate” - was still a Blackback. The Blackback Buhanga, Karateka’s brother, briefly took over leadership of the family, including Karateka.

Buhanga was too inexperienced to keep hold of the family, and had an interaction with Karateka. The family split into 2, and Karateka left Buhanga and the rest of the family with 3 other individuals.

1998 did not start well for Karateka. On 10th January he had another interaction with Buhanga, and he lost the 3 individuals he had gained weeks before. As you know, shortly after Kabirizi took all of the individuals from Buhanga and formed a family.

Karateka has been a Solitary Silverback to this day.

Karateka - when he was young he was always hitting people, hence his name “He who practices karate”

Buhanga, Karateka’s brother, is also a Solitary in the Mikeno Sector

If Kabirizi is around, Karateka is not far away. He is always on the lookout to take females from Kabirizi. But for all these years he has had no success. Kabirizi is stronger than him.

Karateka is today about 20 years old. We do not know exactly. Solitary Silverbacks must be strong, fight, and form their own family. But Karateka could well be solitary for a very long time.

Karateka is still struggling to form a family

Karateka is one of our 72 habituated Mountain Gorillas in the Mikeno Sector. He is very calm. How do we identify him? Well not just from the noseprint, but also because his left ear is torn and the 3rd finger on his right hand is also partly missing. This happened in the late 1980s when Karateka caught his finger in a metal snare. The lack of circulation eventually made the end of the finger drop off. Conrad Aveling helped us cure him.

Karateka is never that far behind the Kabirizi family

Innocent & Diddy

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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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

Technorati : drc, iccn, mikeno, virunga, wildlifedirect

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Rwimo just rang me from Jomba. The Rangers there have located a solitary Silverback called Ruziraewoda. He went missing in January, and we think he crossed over into Uganda. So this is exciting news. We can add one more gorilla to our census data.

Ruziraewoda was born into the Rugendo family, and became a solitary some years ago when he turned silver. He, like other gorillas, do not know international borders - so they cross as they please, and sometimes come back again.

Rwimo also told me that the Rangers continue to track the Mapuwa family every day, who are near Jomba, and the Rugendo family, who are near Bikenge. They still have the two weapons and two GPS’ that the rebels gave back, but nothing more. None of the equipment that was stolen by the rebels at Bikenge has been given back either - the guns, the radios, the cell phones, rations etc.

We suspect in fact that the rebels are allowing the Rangers to follow Mapuwa and his family because they want to try and bring in tourists from Rwanda. Jomba is right next to the Rwandan border, and in our neighboring country tourists pay $500 per day to see gorillas. I know it sounds strange, but this is what we believe. The good news is that the rebels will protect the gorillas if they see them as a source of revenue.

No other gorilla families have been located and identified in the Mikeno sector. So out of the 73 habituated gorillas, we have located 17, and of course Ruziraewoda is an added bonus.

We are still concerned. The Rugendo family is still very vulnerable, because they do not have a Silverback leader. I am also worried about the Munyaga family. They often have interactions between the 3 Silverbacks of the family, and it is important to keep track of these. Interactions make families move also - sometimes large distances. There could also have been interactions involving Humba or Kabirizi. We still know nothing of either of these 3 families.

And the orphan in the Kabirizi family Mutazimiza needs to be monitored by Dr Jacques, who of course has not been in for over 3 weeks now. Noel in the Rugendo family is still healing from her cut that she got in the July massacre and Dr Jacques needs to take a look at that.

Noel, born 24 December 2003. Photo taken in August during census.

Still so many questions. Rwimo will be back at Rumangabo tomorrow. We have no idea about the ceasefire that was meant to end this weekend between the rebels and the army. Bukima and Bikenge are still controlled by the army, who still won’t let our Rangers in. Jomba by the rebels. But it can’t go on like this forever so we are still waiting.

Diddy

Correction: The silverback is called Ruzirabwoba. Sorry, I made a typing error.

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

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We’ve just come back from our status and identification check of the habituated gorillas at the Bikenge and Jomba Patrol Posts, and are very pleased to tell you that the Lulengo Silverback, who went missing with an adult female in January of this year, has been found.

Last Thursday we heard that there was an interaction between a lone Silverback and the Silverback Pili-Pili at Rutabagwe. However, it wasn’t until we arrived that the individual was able to be identified as Lulengo. There was no sign of Lulengo’s previous partner, and we believe that she may have been charmed away by a wild, lone Silverback in the area.

Pili-Pili did have a family group of 4; 1 Silverback, 2 adult females and 1 sub-adult female. Unfortunately for Pili-Pili, it seems that after the interaction Lulengo succeeded in charming all of the family away from him, leaving him solitary with nothing but, I should imagine, as much anger as is possible.

So Lulengo is found, and with a new family. Although not clear, below is the wound that Lulengo received during the interaction with Pili-Pili.

I’m sure it will heal faster than Pili-Pili’s pride.

Diddy

Technorati : Congo, DRC, ICCN, Lulengo, Mountain Gorilla, WildlifeDirect

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I wanted to share a few thoughts on the effects of the recent Mountain Gorilla deaths on the remaining Gorillas in Virunga National Park in Congo.

Both Silverbacks killed in January were solitary males. This provokes less social trauma on the remaining Gorillas in the area, but it has a negative effect on the growth of the population as a whole. New Gorilla groups must form, and this nearly always happens when a solitary Silverback displaces the alpha male from a group (often when he gets old). Sometimes, as we saw with Mapuwa and Pilipili recently, two new groups are formed and so the population grows. This is natural and it’s a good thing. The populations at Bikenge, where the two Silverbacks were killed, will suffer from a lack of strong solitary males.

The overall state of a group is very much determined by the dominant Silverback. He affects the temperament of the group. If he’s agitated, the group will be nervous. If he’s calm, the group follows suit. If the Silverback is killed by poachers, it has a catastrophic effect on the rest of the group.

Some colleagues of mine at ICCN (Kajuga, Mbula and Sikubwabo) wrote a paper on the effects of the killing of a dominant Silverback, Rugabo, of the Lulengo group, by poachers in 1995. The Lulengo group lived in the Bikenge area in Virunga, and was at the origin of many of the groups who are there today. The Mapuwa group (which has now split) was formed from the Lulengo group. Karema, killed by rebels in January, also originated from this group. You will see from this article that I mention how important it is that we protect the individuals in these groups. When a Gorilla is killed, the group itself is usually destroyed, and the trauma is felt for years afterwards.

Technorati : congo, mikeno, mountain gorilla, poacher, virunga, wildlifedirect

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For the last few days now the Silverback Pilipili and the Solitary Silverback Mareru have been in combat. You will recall that Pilipili was the Silverback who took control of three individuals from Mapuwa’s family just recently after a confrontation (I posted photos of the injuries they sustained). Now it seems that Mareru wants to take control of Pilipili’s group. I will keep you informed of what happens over coming days and send photos also. This is quite common Gorilla behaviour and we will be following events closely.

I am also pleased to report that the newborn continues to do well. Thank you for all the wonderful name suggestions. It was heartwarming. Photos also will come when possible.

We are still looking for the four missing Gorillas also.

This is a photo of my wife, taken last month:

And these are some of my children:

I look forward to your comments!

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Since my last post we have been continuing the patrols in the Mikeno sector of Virunga National Park. The Gorilla families in Bikenge and Bukima are now being followed on a daily basis… but we have still to locate the solitary Silverbacks Ruziraboba, at Jomba, and Mareru, at Bikenge. The Lulengo couple are also missing… So that makes four Mountain Gorillas unaccounted for, 3 of them Silverbacks.

We are desperately trying to find them. As part of the daily patrols we conduct additional searches, but so far nothing. I will keep you posted on events. We are of course worried that they may have suffered the same fate as Karema and the other Silverback in January.

Since all the problems last year, when patrol posts were looted and Rangers forced to flee, illegal charcoal burning has increased in the area. We really need to confront this – the charcoal burners systematically destroy the forest. This another challenge for us, which we are facing daily!

We have also found traps set by hunters and poachers - these people are not looking to hunt Gorillas, but other mammals. However, Gorillas get caught in them too, so we must also look for snares when we are patroling.

But the situation is gradually improving – I am very happy to report. And we even had 4 North American diplomats come and visit the Gorillas the other day!

Thanks again for all your support in protecting these wonderful creatures!

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