Tshiaberimu

Category: Gorillas, Tshiaberimu | Date: Jun 26 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

Hello this is Jean Claude. Thank you again for all your messages. In response to some of the comments I thought it might be useful to give you a quick outline of how the Mount Tshiaberimu Conservation Project is funded.The project is currently operating on a grant from the European Union in conjunction with the United Nations Great Apes Survival Project. This has been running for the past two years and will come to an end at the end of this year. This has been paying for the majority of the operating costs, particularly the rangers’ salaries and field rations, as well as our education campaign and community support activities around the mountain. Other operating costs are kept to a minimum, but the rising fuel costs are causing us some concern. With this grant we have been able to keep the rangers well-equipped and there should be enough available still to upgrade a radio system as needed. Beyond that however, we could not have budgeted for the tragic events that have happened this year, nor for the attack that happened last year.Emergency funds are therefore desperately needed on top of the grant to pay for fully equipping the project with veterinary supplies and further training in gorilla health monitoring and veterinary procedures. The costs are: Necropsy kit is approx $200 and darting equipment $2000. Antibiotics approx $1000, anesthetic drugs $2000 and up to an extra $6000 for the training. We are working with Gladys and CTPH to provide these for us once the funds are in place.Thank you all. I will keep you updated if there are any further developments. 

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 23 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

Please find below a message from Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO, Conservation Through Public Health (www.ctph.org).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I just returned from a trip to Mount Tshiaberimu to check on the health of the gorillas. This was particularly important because two adult female gorillas died in the space of 3 months, in February and May 2008, of suspected disease, leaving the fragile Mount Tshiaberimu gorilla population with only three adult breeding females.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Post mortems conducted by Dr. Joseph Mavisi, the local Congolese veterinarian initially indicated a large parasite burden of tape worms. However post-mortem samples from the second female, Molo, indicated Shigella bacteria in the fecal sample and a bacteremia on tissue sample analysis. Shigella bacteria has been seen before in both normal and abnormal gorilla fecal samples in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Shigella is also considered to be one of the causes of dysentery in Ugandan human populations and possibly communities surrounding the park. Therefore the diagnosis of bacteremia could be due to Shigella or any other bacteria.                                                                                                                                                         My trip to Mount Tshiaberimu on request of the Gorilla Organization, who set up the Mount Tshiaberimu Conservation Project in 1996 in collaboration with the ICCN, was to do another health check on the gorilla groups, especially as blood was seen on the dung of Kitawite, one of the three remaining adult females in Kipura group. We traveled with Mount Tshiaberimu project director, Jean Claude Kyungu, Dr. Mavisi and CTPH Founders, Steven Rubanga (Chief Veterinary Technician) and Lawrence Zikusoka (Director of ICT for Development).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                On arrival in Mount Tshiaberimu we found two other gorillas in the Lusenge group, one silverback and one adult female, that had also been seen with blood on their dung a couple of days previously. A visual health check indicated that these two gorillas were clinically healthy and their dung was well formed with no blood or mucus. Also on arrival, the park staff reported that Kitawite, the adult female gorilla, was looking healthy, behaving normally and had a normal looking appearance. We examined fecal samples from the night nests of Kitawite and the rest of her group, which showed normal formed gorilla dung with no blood or mucus. Though the gorillas appear to be clinically healthy, the Mount Tshiaberimu staff are rigorously monitoring them for any further clinical signs.                                                                                                                                                                                          In the meantime there is a very urgent need to get medication to treat any further infections, and prevent further gorilla deaths. We would only treat the gorillas if it was absolutely necessary but it is important to have the right equipment to hand just in case. We therefore need to obtain long acting broad spectrum antibiotics effective against Shigella and most other bacteria, such as Ceftiofur, fortunately found in USA. We also need funds for darting equipment and proper necropsy kits for the attendant veterinarian, Dr. Mavisi and funds for training the veterinarian and support staff at Mount Tshiaberimu in gorilla health monitoring and emergency veterinary procedures.                                                                                                                                                                                                                         There is a possibility that the source of infection in these gorillas could have come from the surrounding local population, who have inadequate health care and ill equipped health centres, putting the gorillas at risk when they leave the park. Therefore there is a great need to identify common causes of intestinal infection, especially those causing dysentery as well as other diseases in people and livestock bordering the park, and find ways of reducing the prevalence of infection by assisting the health and veterinary centres with appropriate equipment and resources and intense community education campaigns.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Finally there is a great need for good radio communication equipment; it was extremely difficult to track the Kipura group because they were fighting with Kanindo, a silverback who recently acquired a female. The advance team were not able to communicate effectively with our group, and we eventually were not able to that gorilla group before dark.

9 responses so far

Category: Gorillas, Tshiaberimu, Uncategorized, Virunga National Park | Date: Jun 16 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

Hello, this is Jean Claude. We have just received the results from the initial analysis done on the tissue samples taken during Molo’s autopsy. The results show that Molo was suffering from Shigellosis, an infection of Shigella bacteria that causes dysentery. She was also suffering from a relatively high parasite load. While Shigellosis is not necessarily a killer, if contracted by an animal that is weakened by worms, then the bacteria can cause death.  Shigella is spread by the faecal-oral route so the remaining gorillas in this tiny population are in grave danger. (here is a photo of one of our precious gorillas during happier times).  Dr Mavisi, the vet who carried out the autopsies, and everyone at the Gorilla Organization would like to thank Dr Gladys Kalema from Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) who has responded so rapidly to our distress call from Tshiaberimu following the death of two gorillas.Dr Gladys has been able to quickly arrange some advanced training, and last week myself, Dr Mavisi and Safari (the head monitoring agent) went to Uganda to learn how to identify even the slightest signs that a gorilla is unwell. When we returned to Mount Tshiaberimu we trained all the other monitoring agents here. The training was extremely useful and will help us protect the remaining gorillas. We do not have all the equipment we need here but Dr Gladys has been able to come to Mount Tshiaberimu to look after the gorillas during this difficult time. Dr Gladys will not be able to stay long so when she leaves it is important that we get equipment we need so we can carry out advanced checks ourselves. My colleague Vhosi has also been sending out messages on the radio about health and wellbeing to ensure that all the local communities are healthy, and that we minimise any spread of disease. We are doing all we can to protect our gorillas. 

9 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jun 12 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

Hello, this is Jean Claude. Thank you for all your messages following the second gorilla death at Mt Tshiaberimu.

I have been working in conservation since 1995, yet I have never before experienced such difficult times. The work at Mt Tshiaberimu has not been at all easy recently. I have worked through periods of insecurity, I have received death threats, the Tshiaberimu sector has been attacked, members of the team have lost their lives and others have been wounded …. and now, after everything, the gorillas are sick.     

 This is enough to dishearten us, but what would happen to my friends the gorillas if we gave up?  

Since May 2007 I have not slept well. The attack on May 20 2007 threatened the gorillas and the project’s staff and for many months the future of the project and the safety of the gorillas and staff rested on my shoulders. (This is a picture of my colleague Vhosi, in hospital after the attack).  

The situation settled in January 2008, but in the meantime we lost a baby gorilla - killed accidently during an interaction between two silverbacks (the photo here is of the baby’s body). In February 2008 we lived through the death of a female gorilla. The gorilla had shown no signs of illness so her death came as a great shock to us all. The  autopsy revealed that she had an obstruction of the intestine but it was not clear why she died. While we were working heard to seek the true cause of death and protect the remaining gorillas, tragedy struck again and on May 10 a second female gorilla was found dead - just 10 days before the commemoration of the attack at Mt Tshiaberimu a year before. 

These tragic events have struck Mt Tshiaberimu after 10 years of successful conservation and do not reflect the hard work of our team. A lot is needed for us to continue our work. I think we need to improve our logistics; we need an all terrain vehicle for the rapid deployment of patrols and rations; we need to improve telecommunications; and we need a laboratory to analyze field samples. 19 gorillas remain in the population.      

 Abandoning the gorillas is sacrificing their survival. 

6 responses so far

Category: Gorillas, Tshiaberimu | Date: Jun 06 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

This is Jean Claude. I have some very sad news to report from Mt T. A second gorilla has died and we are deeply concerned that a disease is spreading throughout the population.Myself and everyone at Mt T, are doing all we can to find out why the gorillas died and to ensure that none of the remaining 19 gorillas get ill. I am sorry that I do not have much time to write more to you now but please see below some more information from our office in London.

On Saturday 10 May, our team of rangers at Mt Tshiaberimu, found the dead body of Molo, one of the few magnificent female gorillas living in the isolated part of the Virungas National Park. The rangers carried Molo’s body for five hours to get her to the outskirts of the park where a vet was able to carry out an autopsy without delay. The vet found no obvious signs that would explain why Molo died, and further analysis will be done before we can be entirely sure of the cause. What scares us most is that Molo is not the first gorilla to have died at Mt Tshiaberimu this year - on 8 February, Mughole, a female gorilla from the same family group was also found dead … we are gravely concerned that these tragic deaths are linked and could be the result of a contagious disease.… this is a critical situation and one that could see the demise of this extremely rare and fragile population of just 19 gorillas. As I am sure you can understand, the death of a second gorilla is great cause for concern. An outbreak of infectious disease in this area could be catastrophic for this tiny population of gorillas. It is imperative that we very quickly identify the cause of the outbreak and do all we can to prevent the spread of disease any further.Mt Tshiaberimu is a geographically isolated area of the Virungas National Park – the gorillas exist in a remote island of forest surrounded by bustling local communities and extensive farmland. Being sociable and inquisitive animals the gorillas will occasionally come out of the forest to forage in the local fields, putting them in contact with diseases that they would not normally encounter. Gorillas are wild animals and we can’t always prevent them from wandering, but what we can do is ensure that all the people and animals living in this area are well. In areas like this where wildlife, people and livestock intersect, a downturn in any one can seriously erode the heath and wellbeing of the others. To this end we have launched an emergency appeal to immediately address the health needs of the gorillas, the local communities and livestock, and we are asking all our supporters to help us in any way they can. A gift today will help us to do everything we possibly can to keep the remaining MtTshiaberimu gorillas safe and well. Please don’t give up on them.Thank you

Tags: Gorillas, Tshiaberimu

16 responses so far