A Holistic Health Approach

A marshy clearing surrounded by bamboo in the
Sabinyo Group habitat, Parc National des Virungas, Rwanda.

When I was on a routine health check to Sabinyo Group last week, one of the trackers, Leonard, spotted a snare in the bamboo thicket to the right of the trail. It was a typical model: a rope tied at one end to a stalk of bamboo and made into a loop at the other end with a slipknot. This loop lies flat on the ground, a wooden stake holding it in place so that there is tension on the rope — enough to bend the bamboo horizontal. Leonard stuck the blade of his machete in the loop to spring the trap. Startled, I ducked just in time to miss the bamboo as it whipped back up. He untied the rope and put it in his pocket.

A bushbuck antelope disappears into thick vegetation.

Minutes ahead on the trail, another tracker, Jeanipo, found a second and a third snare; then Leonard a fourth. "Enough," I thought; "I don’t like these things. How can there be so many in a park that is highly patrolled and visited daily by scientists and tourists?"

So far, I've managed to photograph only the rear end of a bushbuck, but there's no question that the park is full of antelope. We see their tracks often. I asked Leonard and Jeanipo how many snares one would have to set to catch a bushbuck or a duiker (never mind a gorilla). The answer: five catches three. While the trackers made a radio call to the patrol team, I tried not to envision a dozen more Magayane cases.

An African elephant forages on bamboo in the
Group 13 habitat in the Parc National des Virungas, Rwanda.

We continued on the trail. Suddenly, several very fresh elephant tracks appeared. I held my breath, thinking we might actually see an elephant. That would be amazing luck, given that I've seen only one, three weeks ago on a routine visit to Group 13. I'd learned that day that elephants and gorillas sometimes travel together, often in the morning. But the huge prints disappeared from the trail after a short distance and my thoughts returned to the snares. They seem too small to harm such a huge animal, but I know of one elephant here that may have lost its trunk to a snare last year.

Gihishamwosti, a young male mountain gorilla in the Sabinyo Group,
has wounded toes on his left foot.

As we caught up to the Sabinyo Group, the gorillas left the bamboo area and crossed the marsh to a small water hole. Leonard announced that one of the young males, or black backs as they are called, Shirimpumu, had a wire snare around his toe last week. The gorilla had removed it himself, no problem. But while they gathered around the water, I noticed that another black back, Gihishamwosti, had a toe injury. He was missing two toenails on his left foot and his big toe was swollen. The problem was minor and very likely a random injury or a wound suffered in a fight. Then again, he too could have been caught in a snare for a short while.

As I understand it, gorillas rarely drink water for any length of time. But this group spent five minutes at the water hole. Watching them drink, my mind shifted to the issue of disease. We'd been talking earlier in the week about MGVP goals for the future and had agreed that the project should work harder to exchange information with local public health officials, district veterinarians and lab technicians in order to create a better network for alerts of disease outbreaks that could spread to the gorillas. One of the easiest routes of disease transmission is water.

Tourists visit a habituated mountain gorilla group in Rwanda, Park National des Virungas.

It's not always obvious to people why the mountain gorillas are at risk of disease or why they need vets. After all, the animals live in a protected area. But from an everything-is-connected or integrated health point of view, the gorillas are healthy only if the humans and animals in their ecosystem are also healthy. Thus, another of MGVP's future goals is to share the reasons for existing health regulations and to make recommendations to strengthen them if necessary. Tourists are asked to keep their distance, for example, because they've been in airports and crowded places. Even a common cold can make the gorillas sick.

Members of Pablo Group outside the Parc National des Virungas, Rwanda.

We also agreed that MGVP should continue to offer employee health screening programs for trackers, rangers, guides and scientists. There's every reason to screen this group of people carefully, considering that they spend hours with the gorillas. But the biggest challenge is how to protect the gorillas in the face of a disease outbreak in the villages near the park boundary. When the gorillas leave the park to forage for thistle or eucalyptus, there's always the chance that they may move into an area where flu or measles is active. We need better information exchange with health officials so that more people understand the risks.

A domestic cow inside Akagera National Park, Rwanda.

Cows can carry tuberculosis, brucellosis and a variety of intestinal parasites and bacteria that can be harmful to other animals and humans. When we went to Akagera Park last week, looking for the giraffe that whose snare we'd removed several months ago (Misson Giraffe), we saw cows everywhere, both inside and outside the park. Though the main focus of MGVP vets will always be gorillas, we also talked in our meeting about ways to improve domestic animal and livestock health. We agreed that another goal should be to help train more domestic animal vets in the region.

Giraffe, Akagera National Park, Rwanda

As for our giraffe patient, though we never found him, the rangers and guides reported seeing him a few days earlier. They said he looks a bit thin and still has a limp, but they described a wound that sounds as if it's healing slowly. His case underscores yet another need in this region — more trained wildlife vets. Again, this isn't something MGVP can do alone, but it can help by establishing a network of experts and helping when time and resources allow. We hear Akagera Park will soon hire its own vet. Maybe he or she can help us find our patient next time.

[Rwanda, Oct. 2, 2007. Pictures: Lucy Spelman/MGVP]

Comments

[sheryl]

Wow, you really have your work cut out, Dr. Spelman. This is a great blog entry because it underscores an ongoing conversation over on Wildlife Direct about how helping humans is essential if we're to save wildlife and habitat. This is a lesson I've been a long time learning, I'm afraid, but it's becoming clearer thanks to people like you and Wildlife Direct.

s.

[Annie]

Thanks again for all you do..........there is a special place in heaven for people like you!!!!!!!!

[George]

It would be a nice place to get and read the good blog. Thanks for nice observation!