On September 13, 2012, the community conservation group Jeunesse Pour le Conservation de l'Environnement brought a baby Grauer's gorilla to the Kahuzi-Biega National Park headquarters at Tshivanga, South Kivu Province. The group claimed to have been given the baby by the Raiya Mutomboki, a rebel group active in the region. The Gorilla Doctors were on hand to examine the baby, a nine-month-old female later named Isangi. On September 15, Isangi and Dr. Martin of the Gorilla Doctors made the long journey from Kahuzi-Biega National Park to the Senkwekwe gorilla sanctuary at Virunga National Park.
In the last four years, 10 Grauer's gorilla orphans have been confiscated from poachers, and authorities investigated numerous other reports of illegally-held gorillas. Closely related to the more famous mountain gorillas, Grauer's gorillas, also called eastern lowland gorillas, are one of four gorilla subspecies, and can only be found in Eastern DRC in Kahuzi-Biega, Virunga, and Mikeo National Parks and isolated forest reserves. The population size of the species is unknown but most experts believe there may be fewer than 4,000 remaining.
Gorilla Doctors' international team of veterinarians is the only group providing wild mountain and Grauer's gorillas with direct, hands-on care in the wild. www.gorilladoctors.org
30 сен 2024
