Gorilla

I’ve just got back to Goma after going to Kampala to attend the Gorilla Organization’s annual strategy meeting. As always, it was great to catch up with my colleagues from other countries and talk about how our respective projects are helping transform communities and safeguard gorillas. It’s really inspiring to see everyone working towards a common goal and to see how your generous support is helping make a real difference in Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo.

Joined by our director Jillian Miller, we began the meeting discussing what we have achieved over the past 12 months and it was clear from listening to my colleagues that our conservation and poverty reduction projects have continued to meet, and in some cases even exceed, their targets.

We also talked about our plans for the year ahead. We are hoping to implement more than 20 projects across the three countries in 2012, all of them geared towards helping both the gorillas and the people who live alongside their forest home. Activities supported will include beekeeping in Kisoro, Uganda, conservation radio programmes in Goma, DR Congo and agricultural training in Rwanda.

It’ll certainly be a busy, and hopefully a highly-productive, year! I look forward to keeping you updated with news on our work here in Africa and thank you for your ongoing support.

Tom Munyakibina welcomed me to the Kisoro Queen Bee Rearing Centre

Hi, this is Tuver,

Just recently, I paid a visit to the Queen Bee Rearing Centre in Kisoro District, Uganda. Set up by the Gorilla Organization in 2009, this exciting initiative is making a real difference to the lives of local communities and helping to ease the pressure being placed on the gorillas’ forest home.

Rather than heading into the Mgahinga National Park to set up hives in the trees there, the centre allows the district’s beekeepers to do this away from the gorillas’ protected habitat. Under the guidance of Tom Munyakibina and Francis Sekabuga, keepers are taught the latest techniques, enabling them to increase their own yields. At present, the centre’s hives are producing 90kg of honey per season, with this collected over the course of three weeks.

Additionally, Tom and Francis are successfully breeding queen bees, meaning communities across the Kisoro District will be able to benefit from their own hives, providing them with a sustainable and gorilla-friendly source of food and income!

Below you can see a couple of pictures I took on my visit…

Some of the Gorilla Organization's many hives helping to ease the pressure on gorilla habitat

Tom was keen to show me how the centre is enjoying an upturn in honey production

Hello this is Tuver,

I have just got back to the office in Goma after a trip to Kahuzi Biega National Park. I was hoping to get some photos of the new baby twins that were born into Chiminuka’s group in November. Unfortunately we didn’t manage to see the twins, their mother is being very protective of them and is keeping them away – which is great as she is keeping them very safe, but a shame that we don’t have any photos to show you.

I did however see Chiminuka (this is a photo of me with Chiminuka) – I have had the privilege of meeting him many times but I am always amazed at how strong and handsome he is. We were also delighted to see one of the other sets of twins in Chiminuka’s family. The photo below is of one of the twins up a tree – the rangers say the twins are now two years old and although they don’t yet have names they are looking forward to naming them soon.

Fingers crossed we will get some photos of the new born twins very soon!

Hi this is Tuver,

Thank you all for your comments and interest in the ladies who have travelled to India from the DRC to take part in our unique initiative to promote sustainable development and support gorilla conservation in the Virungas.

I have been having weekly contact with the women in India and Bunker Roy, who is the manager at the college there – the women are doing amazingly well! During the past few weeks they have learnt how to make solar lanterns and the circuits that will power the lanterns, and in the last 20 days they have made 10 lanterns and 15 circuits, which is an excellent achievement – Bunker tells me most trainees take 2 months to achieve this. What I find so amazing about this whole project is the way the ladies are learning and communicating – all the Congolese ladies speak Swahili, a language that is not spoken by anyone else at the college. All the learning and communication is done through diagrams and colours!

The Congolese women are training  with women from  Kenya, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, Colombia, Jordan   and   Indian  trainers. So they are meeting people from all over the world. The ladies tall me they are enjoying the Indian food and really interested in learning all about the Tilonia culture.

Here are some photos of the ladies at work in India!!

Hi this is Sam at the Gorilla Organization’s Ugandan resource centre. The last couple of weeks have been very exciting for us. We have launched a brand new gorilla consrervation project in Western Uganda – Africa’s very first pedal powered cinema for conservation! This innovative cinema will be showing educational conservation films to school children and communities in some of the most rural villages on the edge of Mgahinga National Park. Prior to the launch of this project, many of the children, and even their teachers, had never seen a film before – and many had never seen images of gorillas.

Here is a photo of the pedal-powered cinema in action. The viewers take it in turns to pedal the bike, which generates enough energy to power the film!

Madeline Westwood, the director of the Great Apes Film initiative, who is partnering with the Gorilla Organization on this project, and Colin Tonks, the “wonder technician” and inventor of the cinema, came to Uganda from the UK to set this project running.

The first film showings were amazing – at one screening as many as 800 children came along to enjoy the Gorilla Organization’s film. And they were so excited – it was wonderful to see. The bike adds an extra element of audience participation to the screenings and children where queuing up to do some pedaling and power the film!

The children were amazed at what they saw. Some were so interested in the gorillas, and are now so desperate to protect them that they wanted us to make sure that their parents could watch the film too – I have no doubt that each and every one of them went home to tell their families about what they had seen. This is a huge step for gorilla conservation – the more local people who what to protect the gorillas, the more likely the gorillas are to survive long into the future.

As well as providing invaluable conservation education, the bikes provide an entirely clean source of power. No petrol is needed, no electricity is needed and as a result there is no negative environmental impact of showing these films.

Conservation education is now reaching remote communities, villages with no electricity and a whole host of others who have never before been able to see films or access this type of education – for this we are extremely proud.  In the three weeks that the project has been running 11,600 school children, 184 teachers, 110 soldiers and 46 park rangers, all living around the Ugandan gorilla habitats, have seen the films – wow!

Here is a photo of children transfixed by the film and the bike in motion!

Hello this is Emmanuel, I am the Gorilla Organization’s Rwandan Programme Manager.

This coming Saturday is the annual Great Gorilla Run in London, UK. Hundreds of people dress up as gorillas and run around the city to raise money for our projects out here in Africa – it is an amazing event.

Three years ago I was given the fantastic opportunity to travel to London and take part in the Great Gorilla Run – it was one of the best days of my life!

When I was told that I was going to London It was difficult to imagine what it would be like. And when I was told that I would be running 7kms around London dressed in gorilla suit … well, that was another point. I think my neighbours still remember seeing me running through the streets of Gisenyi, my town in Rwanda, as I trained for the Great Gorilla Run.

September arrived and I travelled more than 6000km to reach London. I was really excited to see what this town, which I have heard so much about, was really like!

The D-day arrived, and I met all the other gorilla runners at Minster Court and started putting on my gorilla suit. I was happy to wear number 700, the number of Mountain gorillas living in the world at the time.

Until then, I was confident with my training, my thoughts were to win it. However, I realised that this was not going to be an easy run. As I waited at the start it was so strange seeing many different people excited about dressing as gorillas and trying to imitate their behaviours by either eating a banana, roaring or charging!

Each time, I was wondering what would happen if they saw real gorillas. Or, if those gorilla statues at Minster court were real gorillas seeing them!?!  Surely they would be delighted to see a human struggling to become a gorilla!!

Once the kick off was given, I started running following others and holding a collection bucket, which I was using to collect money from viewers enjoying the Sunday sun! I can remember being stopped by a couple, probably, they wanted to check if I was a real gorilla and to prove this I charged!!! They ran away but immediately came back and put some coins into the bucket before wishing me success!

Although I had studied the map of the run, I couldn’t locate myself between the high buildings. It was difficulty to see the sky and the sun which is how we traditionally find our way in Rwanda. I was simply following others!!

I can not remember how many bridges I crossed, I could not even remember how long it took me, what I remember is that I did it, it was amazing and raised I collected £75 in my bucket during the run!!

Can you spot me in the photo!

A few weeks ago, I watched the Gorilla Organization’s director, Jillian Miller, well up with emotion as she sat on the steps of the small house in the Virungas that welcomed the American researcher, Dian Fossy, all those years ago. When Dian first came to Virungas to study the gorillas in 1974, she was based at this house in Rumangabo, which to this day is still the main headquarters for the Virungas National Park.

But this house did not begin with Dian Fossey, in fact its history with gorilla conservation began during the early 1960’s when it was built by another famous gorilla conservationist George Schaller. Dian, who followed Schaller’s groundbreaking research, was thrilled to be staying in his hut when she first arrived in DRC.

Jillian met with the family who now live in the house and work as rangers in the Virungas to protect the same gorillas that Dian Fossey worked hard to protect in the 70’s. Jillian shared her memories of Dian and George with us all and for us it was so inspiring to hear first hand of the pioneers of gorilla conservation.

Schaller and Fossey were the first to demonstrate the deep compassion and social intelligence evident among gorillas, and how very closely their behavior parallels that of humans. The Gorilla Organization continues the conservation work they so bravely started from the little house in the Virungas.  Times have changed and approaches to conservation have changed with it, but we will always be inspired by the first gorilla conservationists.

Having met the Kabirizi family twice I feel as if they are my family so you can imagine my joy when I saw that Kabirizi has another child. that means that Miza, the orphaned baby gorilla we wrote about in “Looking for Miza” about has another sibling!

Look at this beauty!

Thank you Innocent for bringing us this wonderful news. I know that things are still very difficult in eastern DR Congo but the gorillas look quite peaceful thanks to our former CEO Emmanuel de Merode who is now the Virunga National Park warden and his team of dedicated rangers on the ground.

In just ten seconds online you could help the Gorilla Organization to continue funding a vital project that reduces pressure on precious gorilla forests in DR Congo to preserve the long-term future of gorillas.

Out of nearly a thousand nominations, the UN Year of the Gorilla ‘Jiko Stoves’ project in the area surrounding the Virunga National Park has been selected as one of only twelve finalists in the World Challenge 09 competition.

Online voters simply have to visit www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/2009-finalists-project04.php and cast a vote for the DR Congo ‘Jiko Stoves’ project. It takes only ten seconds and does not require registration.

The area surrounding the Virunga National Park in DR Congo, home to the critically endangered mountain gorilla, is densely populated, with most families reliant on firewood and charcoal for cooking and heating. The collection of firewood can have a detrimental effect on the gorilla habitat, and is also very time-consuming and physically exhausting for the villagers and children involved.

Partnering with local group AIDE-Kivu, the Gorilla Organization launched the fuel-efficient stove project in 2008, producing and distributing ‘jiko’ stoves which reduce the consumption of firewood and charcoal by at least 75%. Families with fuel-efficient stoves are now using on average just 1.5 sacks of charcoal a month compared to four sacks per month before.

The Director of The Gorilla Organization, Jillian Miller, says “The ‘Jiki Stoves’ project in DR Congo has shown proven success in reducing the consumption of firewood and charcoal – which is a huge threat to the critically endangered mountain gorilla. Winning the $20 000 prize money in the World Challenge competition would fund this vital project for an entire year”

26th September
Knuckle-walking over London’s Tower Bridge in a gorilla suit is quite a novelty, I found today. How to describe it?  Imagine almost as many people in gorilla suits as there are mountain gorillas on the planet (more than twice as many as there are Cross River Gorillas) – no, wait a minute, no need to imagine it – just look up the photos and videos of London’s annual Great Gorilla Run.

Described as the most entertaining charity event on the planet, there was a carnival atmosphere in the City when I arrived towing my gorilla suit in a wheeled bag (yes, I know I should have been collecting donations on the Tube dressed in it en route, but my biggest concern over doing this event was thermo-regulation – whenever I’ve used ape-suits I emerge bright red and drenched with sweat after only a short time, and so I aimed to spend the minimum time possible in faux-fur!  Also, I have a policy of acting only in a species appropriate fashion when dressed as an ape, which is why I felt the need to knuckle-walk rather than run the 7km). 

I slipped through the dancing fancy-dress gorillas and quickly attached a Year of the Gorilla banner onto the railings over-looking the crowd, then looked for somewhere to change. No handy telephone box beckoned a la Superman, so behind a marble pillar had to do – it was only minutes to go to the advertised start time.  The inspiration for my outfit was the famous Victorian cartoon of Darwin’s head on an ape’s body, so in addition to the gorilla suit (provided when you sign up to the GGR), I’d acquired a pirate’s beard and a rubber ‘bald head’ like an old-style swimming cap. 

I’d only tried out the costume the night before, and was disappointed to find that not only did it have an anatomically bizarre rubber chest-piece with breasts and no fur down to the groin, it had no feet.  Everyone else was wearing running shoes, but that didn’t seem right so I opted for bare feet and had brought a bottle of black food-colouring from the cake decoration box in our kitchen to colour my toes. While some of the GO volunteers patted flour on my back (the suit is all black fur, but I fancied being a silverback), I made a mess all over the plaza blacking my feet (it is water soluble, so will soon wash away, honest!) and then I was off, knuckle-walking through the bipedal throng, barely able to see a thing through the tiny eye-slits in the mask.

Jillian Miller, CEO of the Gorilla Organisation, was making a speech with TV presenter Helen Skelton, so I knuckled onto the podium and gave a hug and a chest beat, then the rubber hit the tarmac and we were off.

Quadrupedalism is difficult for humans because of our inter-membral index (the ratio of arm-length to leg length) – other apes have longer arms than legs, but our long legs, so good for striding and running, just make our bum stick up in the air when on all fours. Conscious of this, I was trying to keep my legs crouched, taking my weight on the knuckles and swinging myself to one side or the other in a slightly side-ways gait. This worked OK for a few paces at a time, alternating with straightforward quadrupedal walking, but the limited vision was a problem.  Mostly I was seeing bits of pavement, or looking up sideways to check for traffic.

Then out of the corner of the gorilla-mask’s eye, I noticed some impossibly long legs with no fur at all… two shapely models in hot-pants and high-heels were being photographed (for the Sunday Sport, I later found out – a paper with an unending fascination for the female form).  Just as I took one by the hand and dragged her tri-pedally, my rubber bald-hat popped off and the photographer snapped away as these lovely leggy ladies struggled to stretch the rubber over a bearded gorillas head… I wonder if it made it into the paper?

Behaving like a gorilla can be a lot of fun on a sunny Saturday in London.  It wasn’t too long before the other six hundred and twenty or so gorillas had overtaken me, and so for most of the course I had the street to myself.  Hence, many tourists, passersby and one policewoman had their day enlivened by a Darwin-bearded gorilla.  You have to be careful with kids – some can be reduced to tears if you approach (which rather defeats the object), but others you can hoist onto your back for a ride.   Swinging from trees and railings, climbing into ice-cream vans, squeezing between courting couples, joining drinkers at out-door tables – the opportunities for fun are endless, and my only rules are that it must be within the gorilla’s behavioural repertoire and shouldn’t cause offense!

Being the last gorilla meant that as I made my way round the course, I rounded up the stewards as I went.  One witnessed me head-butting a pillar on the embankment and kindly walked with me to warn of obstacles and make sure I didn’t take a wrong turning.  I must confess I didn’t do the whole 7km on all fours, but I did do it all in character, so when I evolved a bipedal stance, it was with the kind of arm-swinging swagger I’ve seen gorillas do.  The most painful part was knuckle-walking back over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge (which has a serrated steel surface like a cheese-grater). It was just over two hours when I crossed the finishing line – I’d missed the prize-giving for the best dressed gorilla, etc.,  but there was still someone there to hang a medal around my neck and hand me a banana, a bottle of water and a ‘Grumpy Gorilla’ bar (a fruity cereal snack by one of the sponsors www.grumpygorilla.co.uk).

I got a friend to photograph me hanging under the YoG banner, then removed the mask and emptied the sweat that had pooled in the rubber gorilla-hand gloves…  apart from the not-so-bald pate,  that was probably the point when I most resembled the Victorian cartoon. Usually I don’t like to be photographed half in a gorilla suit, but I noticed Sam of the Gorilla Organization being interviewed and he invited me to join him.  I explained about the YoG and how the gorilla’s fate is tied to Africa’s tropical forests which are of global importance, and only then found that the film crew were also making a series for BBC World on climate change leading up to the Climate Convention in Copenhagen in December.  They had not yet heard anyone speak of the role of tropical forests, so once again serendipity helped get this important message to a wider audience.

What are my lasting impressions?  Well, aching muscles and blisters on my knuckles aside, I have to agree with Bill Oddie (who sadly was unwell and missed this year’s event) that the Great Gorilla Run is the most fun fund-raising event in the calendar.  Regular readers of the YoG Blog may recall that I mentioned my intended participation a few weeks ago, hoping that curious browsers would find their way to my sponsorship page (http://my.artezglobal.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=281732&LangPref=en-CA ) where they’d be invited to pledge a ‘Darwin’ (the £10 note bears a portrait of Charles Darwin) but alarmingly, right up until last Monday only one person had done so. Once back in the office after the ‘State of the Gorilla’ Safari, I began firing off emails to all and sundry and to my immense relief, by Saturday the total pledged was £1,100 – just behind the top five fund-raisers.  If you had intended to sponsor me, it is not too late – and one of the projects to benefit will be the fuel-efficient stoves that are listed in the YoG projects list.  Over to you!!   And many thanks in anticipation…