Quest: Mountain Gorillas: Discovery Channel

Is Ururabo's Baby Sick?

On Day 15 of the Susa Group respiratory outbreak, a cool, rainy morning, I stood in one place for two hours watching three sick gorillas. The longer I stayed, the more I worried about what we'd find the next day. Ururabo, a first-time mother with a 3-month-old baby, coughed and picked her nose. Her baby coughed and sneezed; white fluid ran down from each nostril. He breathed through his mouth's pursed lips.

Coughing and Sneezing in Susa Group Continued

On the sixth day of the respiratory outbreak it was my turn to visit Susa Group. The coughs from the sick silverbacks reverberated through the forest. Kurira had barely moved his family from where they'd foraged the day before. Juveniles and infants played — again, as if nothing were wrong.

Coughing and Sneezing in Susa Group

I'll always remember the day Umoja yelled at me and then crawled swiftly toward his mother on two elbows and one knee. Five days after surgery, he no longer needed our help. Nothing in his behavior or appearance suggested that a second intervention with antibiotics would be necessary. My own feet felt light that day as I scrambled down the rocky path out of the forest — until I spoke to Elisabeth. She'd just received worrisome news from the trackers in Susa Group: four gorillas were coughing.