Gorilla Protection

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 26 2009 | By: Aaron Nicholas

Dear Friends,

This is a letter we recieved from Rusty Stewart about meeting Titus, the silverback made famous by Dian Fossy in Gorillas in the Mist.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2009

When I was at ORTPN getting my gorilla trekking permits and it was taking a long time I had an opportunity to watch a documentary about Titus, the Silverback who died last week at the age of thirty five.  He had a very interesting and tumultuous life which included being orphaned at a young age, dodging poachers successfully for years, surviving the Rwandan Genocide by moving to the very top of  Visoke to avoid rebels bent on killing gorillas, surviving the death of Digit,  the leader of his group and one of Dian Fossey’s favorites,  living in an all male group for several years and  finally taking over the group  and leading it successfully for years fathering many new babies.  He seemed to have a philosophy of life that made him charismatic and in my view very human.

With thoughts of Titus on my mind, I set off for Ruhengeri to start my gorilla trek. The trek starts at 0700 and the excitement in the folks was palpable. Each group has 8 people and our group set out with our guide to find our gorilla group.  After a short ride over a very rough road we de-camped. It was a tough 3 hour climb, steadily uphill, through a bamboo forest.  I would be lying if I suggested it was easy.  As the oldest in my group, I had a porter who helped me and I often needed his help.  Then we stopped, left our bags, poles,etc, walked on another hundred feet and there he was… our Silverback, sitting like a Buddha..

We were all mesmerized at how close we were to him.

Our guide was able to speak gorilla which was great so if there was movement he could tell us whether we should be afraid or not.  Other gorillas started to arrive and we enjoyed a real show.  Three young gorillas and two mature females.

The young were intent on entertaining us, but when they came too close to us the Silverback would give what sounded like a small cough and they would run back up to him.

Too soon, our hour of excitement was over and we hiked back down the mountain.

What a thrilling experience, and certainly worth every penny!  I’ve included some of my favorite pictures so you can see how wonderful they are to see in their natural habitat.

I am just finishing Farley Mowat’s book Virunga, The Passion of Dian Fossey (Seal Books McClelland-Bantam, Inc, Toronto)  I am in I recommend it to anyone interested in her struggle to protect the Mountain Gorilla from poacher, and the encroachment of the world.

A word about why I’m in Rwanda right now.  My husband chose to spend a month here teaching anesthesia, as part of an ongoing project sponsored jointly  by the Canadian Society of Anesthesia  and  the American Society, in the university hospital programs in Kigali and Huye.  I have accompanied him and have done some volunteering for Vision Finance International the micro finance arm of the charity World Vision. We have also been accompanied by a young anesthesia resident from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. This  project has been going on for almost two years now and is being very well received.

Today my two adult children are here and they left in the last hour for Ruhengeri to have their own gorilla adventure.  Later all of us will leave Rwanda for Kenya and a Safari.

Thank you Rusty for sharing this story with us. Rest in Peace knowing that you changed the world Titus. 

Paula

Tags: Dian Fossey, gorilla, gorillas, Gorillas in the Mist, Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda, silverback, Titus, Virunga, wildlifedirect

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized, Western Lowland Gorilla, bushmeat | Date: Sep 18 2009 | By: Maina

In the Kouilou region of the Republic of Congo, up to two gorillas are being killed each week, an undercover investigation by the conservation group Endangered Species International has revealed, exposing the scale of gorilla poaching in the country. This story was given world audience by the BBC Earth News portal. It is reproduced here below.

Scale of gorilla poaching exposed

By Jody Bourton
Earth News reporter

An undercover investigation has found that up to two gorillas are killed and sold as bushmeat each week in Kouilou, a region of the Republic of Congo.

The apes’ body parts are then taken downriver and passed on to traders who sell them in big-city markets.

Conducted by the conservation group Endangered Species International, the investigation helps expose the extent of gorilla poaching in the country.

It fears hundreds more gorillas may be taken each year outside the region.

The group began its investigation by going undercover, talking to sellers and traders at food markets in Pointe Noire, the second largest city in the Republic of Congo.

Over the course of a year, investigators visited the markets twice a month, recording the amount of bushmeat for sale.

“Gorilla meat is sold pre-cut and smoked for about $6 per ‘hand-sized’ piece. Actual gorilla hands are also available,” says Mr Pierre Fidenci, president of Endangered Species International (ESI).

“Over time we got the confidence of the sellers and traders. They gave us the origin of the gorilla meat and it all comes from a single region.”

The team then undertook an expedition to travel to the source of this meat, a forested area called Kouilou, which lies along the Kouilou River around 100 to 130km from Pointe Noire.

Using the same boats that ferry the gorilla meat downriver to the city, the investigators travelled upstream, taking photographs and recording interviews with villagers which revealed the extent of the gorilla poaching.

The investigators also undertook field surveys to ascertain the size of the population of wild western lowland gorillas living in the region.

“According to interviews and field surveys, we think we may have about 200 gorillas left in the area,” says Mr Fidenci.

“But we estimate that 4% of the population is being killed each month, or 50% in a year. It is a lot.”

The poachers particularly target adult gorillas of reproductive age which carry the most meat.

With such heavy hunting, the researchers believe gorillas could disappear from the region within a decade.

“During our mission we observed killing of gorillas in the wild. In less than one week and a half in one particular area we had two adult gorillas killed for their meat,” Mr Fidenci says.

All the meat appears to be consumed in Pointe Noire rather than being exported.

“The gorilla meat goes to the nearest, biggest and most profitable place,” says Mr Fidenci.

“Our study has disclosed the horrific scale of the endangered species market in the Republic of Congo, especially endangered gorillas sold as meat.”

Overall, ESI estimates that at least 300 gorillas are sold to markets each year in the country.

Crosshead

Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are one of two subspecies of Western gorilla, the other being the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli).

Western lowland gorillas are considered to be critically endangered, as their population has fallen by more than 80% in three generations.

Between 100,000 and 125,000 western lowland gorillas are thought to survive across their entire geographic range which spans several countries.

But the dense and remote forest habitat in which they live often makes it difficult to reliably estimate the population size.

Mr Fidenci hopes to go back to Kouilou to find out more about the remaining gorillas living there and to find a way to conserve them.

“We intend to stop the killing in the area by providing alternative income to locals and working with hunters not against them. We hope to conduct conservation awareness with educational programs with other NGOs and to create a gorilla nature reserve.”

“We need to tackle the problem where it starts, right there where people and gorillas live.”

Currently, little is done in the country to prevent the poaching of bushmeat, Mr Fidenci says.

“Enforcement does not exist. Even though there are existing laws which protect endangered wildlife against such activities.”

Tags: BBC, bushmeat, gorilla, Republic of Congo, Western Lowland Gorilla

No responses yet

Category: DRC, Eastern Lowland Gorilla, Gorilla Range States, Grauer's Gorillas, Patrols, Political situation, Press, Rangers, Sanctuary, Uncategorized, Year of the Gorilla | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: Daniel

Posted (with regrettable delay) on behalf of Ian Redmond.

Today didn’t quite work out as planned.  Early in the morning I bumped into the vice-governor of South Kivu province, Jean Claude Kibala, who I’d met at the Frankfurt Gorilla Conference and who was busy making arrangements for President Kabila, who was visiting Bukavu.  I asked him whether he thought the President would give a message for the Year of the Gorilla.  He thought it quite likely, given the economic importance of gorilla tourism in the region, and said he’d call this evening if it could be arranged.

The Australian Network 7 film crew, minus the producer and me, had already set off early to Kahuzi-Biega National Park HQ to film the morning deployment of rangers and gorilla monitoring teams.  Eleven groups of gorillas are monitored daily in the 600 square kilometre highland sector of the park, despite the dangers of ‘negative forces’ (militias) they may encounter in the forest.  As yet it is too dangerous to have this level of conservation activity in the 10 times bigger lowland sector.  Rebel militias (which effectively means armed bandits) living in the forest need the same equipment as park guards, so attacks on guard posts are all too common.   The producer, Mick O’Donnell, and I intended to visit the Bukavu base of MONUC, the UN Mission in DRC, to check the security situation for Kalehe (where we wanted to film at a mine the next day) then planned to join the crew to film community conservation projects of the Pole Pole Foundation (PoPoF) around the park.  

MONUC is a large, multi-national military operation, and to cut a long story short, we were directed here, there and everywhere by people from Poland, Niger, Pakistan and Egypt without finding the person with whom Mick had been corresponding.   By early afternoon we were out at the airport base talking to a friendly Indonesian officer (who had studied at Monash University in Melbourne so spoke Australian, and came from Sumatra where he had visited orangutans).  Bizarrely, we then found ourselves listening to a conversation in Bahasa as he called his Indonesian colleague in the area of the mine we hoped to film.   Fortunately, all was calm in that area and we got the go-ahead to drive there without the need of a UN escort.  For the first time ever in Africa, I found my self saying ‘terimah kasi’, rather than ‘asante sana’ as we thanked him for his time and called the crew to meet up.

Frustratingly, the crew by then had finished filming the PoPoF projects and were heading for Lwiro, where a small sanctuary for confiscated primates has been created in recent years.  Although sad to have missed the tree-planting and school children singing, I was delighted to visit Lwiro because it was two years since my last visit and I have both human and non-human friends there.  The Centre for Research in Natural Science in Lwiro is a fascinating place - a large and beautifully constructed complex that now sadly looks rather dilapidated.  It was built during the Belgian colonial period with labs and offices linked by covered walkways with arches, giving a cloister-like feel, as if it was a remote monastery for science.  In recent years CO-OPERA, a Spanish NGO, has formed a partnership with ICCN and PoPoF to co-manage the sanctuary.   ICCN is responsible for all wild animals in DRC and needed somewhere to keep animals confiscated from illegal traders or pet owners.   Lwiro had some old cages and was used as a convenient stop-gap until a proper sanctuary and rehabilitation centre can be built with the aim of eventual return to the wild for any animals fit enough.

The Oz crew were keen to interview Andrea Edwards, an Australian primate keeper on secondment to Lwiro from Melbourne Zoo. I was equally keen to catch up with Carmen Vidal, a Spanish vet I’d met on my last visit soon after she had arrived to take over running the sanctuary.   I was impressed by the new, bigger cages for the chimpanzees and monkeys (though suggested that weaving some visual barriers out of branches might help the inmates deal with the inevitable ‘cabin fever’ of being locked up together in such a small space).   Carmen had a surprise in store.   A short walk from the building where the new and old cages were, she showed me a new dormitory nearing completion to better house the growing number of chimpanzees – some of whom are now adult.   Excitedly, she explained the plan to enclose two hectares of forest and two hectares of grassy scrub with an electric fence.   “The chimpanzees will be out of their cages by the end of the year!” she said. 

“And is all the funding in place?” I asked.  

“Not quite,” she replied, “we are not yet approved by PASA, and some supporters will not send funds to sanctuaries that are not up to PASA standards, but of course without funds it is hard to make the improvements that are needed to achieve that standard!”

Quickly I grabbed my video camera and asked her to summarise, thinking I’d post her appeal on the Ape Alliance website (there being no confiscated gorillas at Lwiro;  sadly infant gorillas are illegally traded but when confiscated they are kept at a separate facility in the region under the care of specialist gorilla vets).  You can find out more about Lwiro at http://lwiro.blogspot.com/

While the film crew were finishing their interviews, John Kahekwa introduced me to Bertin Murhabale, a primate researcher and Jean Jaques Bagalwa, head of the Biology Department at CRSN,   I had collected a segment of gorilla tapeworm yesterday, and needed to fix it in Formalin.  They took me to see their labs where, on the bench, were piles of bags of gorilla and chimpanzee faecal samples.  Unfortunately, the primatology lab has no microscope or centrifuge, and Jean Jaques admitted that the whole research centre has only one old monocular microscope.  I invited them to give a YoG-Blog interview, which you’ll see once I find a way to upload it (but if you are reading this in a lab with old scientific equipment unused in a cupboard, do get in touch!).

Filming over, we rushed back to Bukavu (well, as fast as one can rush on atrocious roads in the dark), passing in and out of telephone network coverage, still waiting for that important ‘phone call that might add the first Head of State to the YoG Blog interviewees.  But as you might have guessed, the call never came;  maybe another opportunity will arise when I pass through Kinshasa….

Cheers, Ian

Read Ian’s previous post here.

Tags: conservation, gorillas, Ian Redmond, kahuzi-biega, media, militias, range states, Sanctuary, Threats, Year of the Gorilla

One response so far

Category: Press, Uncategorized, Year of the Gorilla | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: Daniel

Word from YoG Ambassador Ian Redmond (OBE).

Should great apes have rights?   This was one of the questions addressed last Sunday (26th July) on BBC1’s The Big Questions, which the BBC describe as their ‘flagship ethical and religious debate programme’.  

I was invited to take part not because of my role as Ambassador for the UN Year of the Gorilla, but because I have spent hundreds of hours in the company of apes and have had the good fortune to regard some of them as friends (and an objective assessment of their behaviour suggests that the friendship was mutual).  

I guess for any pedantic taxonomists reading this, I should specify ‘non-human apes as friends as well as human ones…’   Great apes share so many characteristics with humans that they are now classed in the same zoological family as us – the Hominidae (find out more in my new book The Primate Family Tree/Primates of the World via www.4apes.com/shop).   But paradoxically, in law they have the same legal standing as a piece of furniture;  in most countries without wild ape populations, captive apes can be bought and sold legally, and any protection they do have in law is accorded mainly because they are endangered species or because they are animals and covered by anti-cruelty laws.   Unfortunately these laws tend to take a rather physical view of cruelty as beating or starving an animal, rather than causing it suffering in other ways – so in law there is nothing to stop the owner of any non-human primate pulling an infant off a mother and selling one or both of them, even though it self-evidently causes great distress to both.

The programme, which can be seen on-line at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lw5v7#synopsis, highlighted for me how strongly some people feel about this – whether for or against.  The divide between the two sides was not bridged, and I suspect few viewers changed their opinion as a result of listening to the arguments, despite the passion with which some were made.

Briefly, my personal position is that the concept of ‘rights’ is an important one in defining limits to human behaviour, whether you believe these rights are God-given or a human construct.    As such, I see no reason why the concept should not be extended to other species, especially those with a higher-order of intelligence who share many of the characteristics we consider to be important in humans.   It seems to me (and many others) quite wrong that a self-aware social mammal with cognitive abilities similar to a child has the same legal standing as a chair, i.e. a possession to be bought and sold.   To me, great apes deserve respect, and the granting of basic rights in law might change atavistic attitudes and help prevent the abuses that humans inflict on them.   To those who say human rights are not respected everywhere, I agree and wish it were otherwise; but it makes no sense to ignore one kind of abuse while striving to prevent another – we need action on both fronts. 

I should also stress, however, that these are my personal views based on 33 years of studying, interacting with and in some cases becoming friends with great apes;  these views are not those of the UN Great Ape Survival Partnership or the UN Year of the Gorilla campaign, which focus on ensuring the necessary steps are taken for great apes to survive in their natural habitat.  

To find out more about the philosophical arguments for ape rights, visit the Great Ape Project at http://www.greatapeproject.org/.     The rights GAP seeks for great apes are simply life, liberty and freedom from torture.  I’d also recommend reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so as to better understand the difference between what we strive to give our own species and what those who have signed up to GAP seek to grant to non-human beings.

My wife made a very pertinent comment after the programme, observing that in any group of people the vast majority respond positively to a call for greater respect for and protection of great apes, whereas talk of rights immediately divides the room.   And as great apes need all the friends they can get at the moment, tactically it might be better in the short term to focus on educating people about apes to increase respect for their cognitive abilities and social skills.   Then in the not too distant future, the logic of granting them rights might not seem such a radical idea…

Cheers,
Ian

Tags: Great ape rights, Ian Redmond

9 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized, Year of the Gorilla | Date: Jun 19 2009 | By: Daniel

Hello, this is Daniel writing to give you a quick update of what’s been happening over the last weeks.

The big news story is certainly the Frankfurt Gorilla Symposium from 9-11 June last week. It was a meeting of leading gorilla conservation experts with policy makers as well as corporate sector representatives. The meeting focused on the main threats to gorillas and their habitats and the steps that need to be taken to address them. To find out more about the meeting, the presentations and the Frankfurt Gorilla Declaration jointly developed and adopted by the meeting, click here (link to YoG website). We thank the German government for leading in the organisation of this major event.

Attention art lovers: several artist are helping the YoG raise funds for key projects. Their paintings, drawings and sculptures focus on gorillas and other wildlife. This way, you can donate and receive a beautiful piece of art at the same time. To find out more, click here (link to YoG website).

And finally, our very mobile Ambassador Ian Redmond is currently in Rwanda for the annual Kwita Izina gorilla-naming ceremonies, meeting Rwandan policy makers and giving lectures as he goes. We hope to hear from him soon on this blog, so stay tuned…!

Tags: fundraising, Ian Redmond, Threats, Year of the Gorilla

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: May 05 2009 | By: paula

A new and shocking report by the Endangered Species International (ESI) reveals that over 300 gorillas are killed and sold for meat annually at Pointe Noire in the Republic of the Congo.  Using undercover methods at key markets in the city of Pointe Noire in 2008 and early 2009, ESI found that 95 percent of the illegal bushmeat sold originates from the Kouilou region about 100-150 km northwest to Pointe Noire where primary and unprotected rainforest still remains. The Kouilou region is one the last reservoirs of biodiversity and endangered animals in the area.

Gorilla meat is sold in the form of smoked meat already cut in pieces. A piece of hand size smoked gorilla is usually sold for 2,500 CFA (6 USD).

Other wildlife species sold in the local markets include mandrill, African rock python, spotted hyaena, great blue turaco, Nile monitor, and black-and-white-casqued hornbill.

Help us to stop the illegal trade in gorillas, make a donation today to support the year of the gorilla.

Tags: Congo, Endangered Species International, gorilla, illegal trade, pointe Noire, trade

4 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: paula

Earlier this year we (WildlifeDirect) were approached by someone commissioned by a rich citizen of a middle eastern country, who wanted to know how to go about purchasing a baby gorilla. We were very disturbed at the request, and explained as politely as possible, the legal and ethical implications and consequences. Well, it’s obvious that there is a market for baby gorillas as has just been reported by the ICCN.

On Sunday a suspected gorilla trafficker was caught and arrested at Goma International Airport.  He arrived from Walikale with a baby eastern lowland gorilla hidden under clothes at the bottom of a bag.  This baby came from Congo which is the only place where this species is found. The baby was stressed and was “suffering from over-heating and dehydration after spending over 6 hours in transit”.

This video shows how the operation was conducted by the Virunga National Park. WildlifeDirects former CEO Emmanuel de Merode led the 3 month opearation. Congratulations to everyone at the ICCN - lets hope that justice will be served and the baby gorilla returns to it’s natural habitat.

Read the ICCN press release here

Tags: Congo, DRC, gorilla, ICCN, lowland gorilla, mountain gorilla, wildlife trade, wildlife trafficking

7 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 12 2009 | By: paula

We at WildlifeDirect have raised concern about China’s role in the accelerating elephant killings across Africa hwic his driven by China’s insatiable demand for ivory. The Government of China claim that they have excellent controls and education programs at home, and deny that China is having the impact that so many of us fear, on elephants, trees, apes and other species in Africa.

Jane Goodall has vindicated us. This news article was just published on AFP on 10th March 2009.

Primatologist Goodall: China plundering Africa resources

WASHINGTON (AFP) — China’s thirst for natural resources including wood and minerals is leading to massive deforestation in Africa and the destruction of crucial wildlife habitat, world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall has said.

The British scientist who revolutionized research with her studies of chimpanzees beginning in 1960 warned that Beijing is pressing governments in central Africa’s Congo basin to sign over forest concessions in return for infrastructure and healthcare aid.

She said the process is helping decimate some of the largest populations of wild chimpanzees and gorillas in the world.

“These areas containing unlogged forests are very desirable to, particularly today, China, with China’s desperate effort for economic growth,” she told a Capitol Hill briefing attended by House of Representatives science and technology committee chairman Bart Gordon.

“Basically, they have almost exhausted their own supplies (of wood and minerals) so they go to Africa and offer large amounts of money or offer to build roads or make dams, in return for forest concessions or rights to minerals and oil,” Goodall, 74, said.

“I’m actually hoping (China’s growth rate) will be slowed a little bit by this economic crisis” in order to stem the deforestation, she said.

Goodall said the Chinese “have many enterprises in Congo-Brazzaville, and they’re certainly in DRC,” the Democratic Republic of Congo, two countries where deforestation and human encroachment have decimated wild primate populations despite efforts by the Jane Goodall Institute and other groups to reverse the trend.

“Their habitat is disappearing,” said Goodall, considered one of the 20th century’s leading scientists for her work with chimpanzees in what is now Gombe National Park in Tanzania.

She said it was crucial to work more closely with national and local governments in order to expand community-based conservation projects as a way to “offset offers from China.”

She also blamed the rampant bushmeat trade for helping devastate primate populations.

The trade is facilitated by foreign logging concerns building roads into once-inaccessible forested areas, and in some cases allowing hunters to ride in and out of the region on logging trucks.

Goodall’s institute is focused in part on expanding chimpanzee habitat in Gombe and working with local villages to rehabilitate denuded land and help create green corridors between Gombe and other areas with chimpanzees within the vast Congo basin.

The softspoken Goodall began her briefing in dramatic fashion, by imitating the wild call of a chimpanzee.

It could be interpreted as a cry for help — both for the primates and for the organizations working to protect them — as Goodall acknowledged that the conservation efforts could suffer a crippling blow over the next year and beyond due to the global financial crisis.

She told AFP that the downturn has made it more difficult to raise money for her work and for local governments to conduct or enforce conservation initiatives.

Tags: China, Congo, DR Congo, Elephants, great apes, illegal trade, ivory, Jane Goodall, wildlifedirect

3 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 04 2009 | By: paula

The news from Congo has all been very good lately, and we’ve forgotten all about Nkunda… or have we?

This new article suggests that Nkunda isn’t quite a villain that the press has painted him out to be, but it is doubtful that many will believe the author.  Afterall, there’s no doubt that things have been much more peaceful since Nkunda’s exit and since the joint military efforts of Rwanda and Congo were initiated. The New York Times story today suggests that most people are cautiously hopeful that this could be the start of a lasting piece.   We at WildlifeDirect at least are all heaving a huge sigh of relief because the news from the Virunga Park reveals that the situation facng rangeres is so much better, reconstruction is ongoing and the Gorillas are safe, and it looks like a new era of cooperation betwen Uganda, Rwanda and Congo on this world heritage site.

Where is  Nkunda now? Kagame says that he’s still in Rwanda and that he will be released to the Congo to deal with him though its not clear why the extradition of Nkunda to Congo is taking so much  time.

Congo is set to undergo major development in coming years with China planning to spend $9 billion on mining and infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of Congo even though there is opposition to this from the International Monetary Fund.

One response so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 03 2009 | By: paula

Today we are celebrating the birth of a baby by Mahisho in the Kabirizi family. Innocent took some lovely photos which can be found here at the Official Virunga website

But we are also mourning the death of 8 year old Muchana at the St Louis Zoo - she was found dead tangled in her ropes.

And 32 year old Kambula at Texas Zoo who had an untreatable condition and was euthanized

We are also deeply shocked by the savage chimpanzee attack in Connecticut. Listening to the 911 call is terrifying I am not surprised that it took this particularly horrific mauling of a woman last week by the pet chimpanzee, for the USA to take immediate action in banning trade in apes. Its not the first time it has happened, over 100 people have been attacked by chimpanzees in USA (29 are children) but this incident led to the swift drafting of new legislation and the passing of a vote to ban interstate trade of apes and monkeys. It’s a pity that it took such a tragic incident to close a loop ion US legislation which bans the importation of apes for pets, but did not ban the transport for the purpose of sale of apes once in the USA. Now that the vote has passed (overwhelmingly 323-95), and will make it difficult for people to access apes like chimpanzees and gorillas which are sought for household companions.

Hopefully this incident which led to the killing of the 14 year old chimpanzee named Travis, will discourage people from seeking baby apes for pets. One consequence of ape trade is the tragic escalation in number of orphaned apes now in captivity in at JACK, Limbe, Cercopan, Tacugama and Lola ya Bonobo.

Ironically, someone called me yesterday asking if I could help find a baby mountain gorilla for a member of the royalty in one of the Arab states who wanted a pet. I know that Vanessa would agree with me when I told them why it was such a bad idea! Somehow though, I fear that this person will try to get a gorilla through illegal means.

Tags: ape trade, baby gorilla, DR Congo, Innocent, Kabirizi, Missouri Zoo, Mountain Gorillas, Virunga

4 responses so far