The world's mountain gorillas almost disappeared. Careful human intervention brought them back.
KINIGI, Rwanda — Deep in the rainforest of Volcanoes National Park, a 23-year-old female gorilla named Kurudi feeds on a stand of wild celery. She bends the green stalks and, with long careful fingers, peels off the exterior skin to expose the succulent inside.
Instead, a concerted and sustained conservation campaign has averted the worst and given a second chance to these great apes, which share about 98% of human DNA.What Can Be Saved Once depicted in legends and films like “King Kong” as fearsome beasts, gorillas are actually languid primates that eat only plants and insects, and live in fairly stable, extended family groups. Their strength and chest-thumping displays are generally reserved for contests between male rivals.
Later, Hirwa informed the chief park warden and the staff at Gorillas Doctors, a nongovernmental group whose veterinarians work in the forest.When they do — for example, by darting a gorilla with antibiotics — they almost never remove the animals from the mountain, since reuniting gorillas can be difficult. A long absence can change the delicate social dynamic.
“With tourism, the tension is always not to overexploit,” says Dirck Byler, great ape conservation director at the nonprofit Global Wildlife Conservation, which is not involved in the Rwanda gorilla project. “But in Rwanda, so far they’re careful, and it’s working.” The pair, who are married and currently professors at Yale University, had another idea, equally radical when it was first proposed — some of the money raised must benefit local communities.
Before taking on the job of running what amounts to one of Rwanda’s most high-profile enterprises, Uwingeli studied gorilla behavior as a research assistant at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. “Can you see over there?” he says, pointing with his radio antenna. “The gorillas are eating there. I saw them. Did you see the trees? They’re there.”
Bizagwira’s grandfather also hiked in the same forest. He was a poacher who laid traps for bushmeat, mostly intended for antelopes but sometimes also ensnaring gorillas.“I love my job, I love wild animals,” he says. “The money that built this school comes from tourism,” says Fabien Uwimana, a French and English teacher. “More children today can go to school.”Jean Claude Masengesho lives with his parents and helps them farm potatoes. About once a week, the 21-year-old earns a little extra money helping tourists carry their bags up the mountain, totaling about $45 a month. He would like to someday become a tour guide, which would earn him about $320 monthly.
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Intense monitoring and care lift mountain gorilla numbersKINIGI, Rwanda (AP) — Deep in the rainforest of Volcanoes National Park, a 23-year-old female gorilla named Kurudi feeds on a stand of wild celery. She bends the green stalks and, with long...
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