Quest: Mountain Gorillas: Discovery Channel

Another Wire Snare (Part 1)

When I first read Benard's email, I didn’t want to believe it. A blackback in Nkuringo Group had a wire snare around his leg. The gorilla had continued to eat, but he'd begun to fall behind the group. One of us needed to cross the border to Uganda before closing time, stay in Kisoro for the evening, and leave for the forest early the next morning to deal with the snare. The drive would take two hours, followed by another hour's trekking.

Snares and Scares

I'd nearly finished my routine health check in Pablo Group when my cell phone buzzed in my pocket, making me jump. It was Jean Felix. We usually text each other in order not to disturb the gorillas, so I knew right away there must be a problem.

Another Coughing Gorilla Group

Elisabeth called me with worrisome news: "The chief has a small cough, and four others." She'd just returned from Kwitonda Group, a family of 19 mountain gorillas. My brain didn't want to accept the information. If Kwitonda and his group had come down with respiratory disease, it would bring the total to four groups in four months (in Rwanda). Yikes.

Another Sick Infant

I've been back in Rwanda for several weeks. As always, I spent two of them in self-imposed quarantine. Any time one of the vets travels on an airplane, we risk exposure to infectious diseases carried by fellow travelers. Though I wash my hands often and stay away from people who appear sick, it's impossible to eliminate the risk.

Tierra's Summer Project: Gorilla Saliva

For the past two months, we've been working out ways to collect and store saliva from gorillas. In the future, we plan to test these samples for diseases, especially the viruses that cause respiratory illness. This study has been a good idea in our heads for some time. Thanks to veterinary student Tierra Wilson, it's finally under way. Tierra not only designed the research project, she found her own funding to come to Rwanda and run it!

Goma Orphan Update

We continue to help take care of the three orphaned gorillas in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They include the two infant mountain gorillas, Ndeze and Ndakasi, whose mothers were shot and killed one year ago, and Mapendo, a juvenile Grauer's gorilla confiscated from poachers six months ago. Here's a brief update about each one.

Ururabo Five Days Later

Elisabeth and I trekked up to Susa Group again the morning after the intervention for Ururabo and her sick baby. Magda and Jean Felix had gone to Kigali for an important meeting on the topic of gorilla visitation rules, a timely subject. My job today was not only to check on our patient but to send regular updates by phone text to all those who'd helped yesterday. Everyone wanted and deserved to know the outcome.

Ururabo's Baby: The Intervention

The gorillas had moved into a bamboo thicket by the time we were ready to treat Ururabo's infant. The dense vegetation offered plenty of good hiding places for darting, but the trackers felt the place wasn't safe enough for an intervention, especially given a 39-member group that includes five silverbacks. As they explained, the tall stalks give aggressive gorillas more confidence. We'd be safer in a clear area, where the four trackers could more easily surround the vet team and scare away any challengers.

Ururabo's Baby Is Very Sick

Ururabo's baby seemed to recover completely after his two-day episode of runny nose and soft cough. We'd been checking him daily, along with all of the mothers and infants. Magda had seen him the day before, and he'd looked normal compared to the infants of both Ruvumu and Rwandarushya, who were now coughing along with their mothers. Dufatayne had recovered and her baby had yet to show any symptoms. When I arrived to check on the group, the mothers and infants were again the priority.

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.