Her hand caught in a biting wire trap, the gorilla whimpers like a baby... rangers who find her are crying too
Gripped around the wrist by a snare, her hand the size of a child’s, the whimpering the young gorilla made as she hung terrified from a branch, separated from her family, was childlike, too.
So upset were the rangers who found her in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park that they cried as well.
Vet Dr Jean Bosco Noheli, 38, one of the Gorilla Doctors who monitor the mountain gorillas across Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, said: “The rangers cried when they found this infant.
“She was hanging, a baby on her own struggling to get free, calling for help.
“We released her and held a small stretcher for her to fall on to, then carried her to her family.”
The three-and-a-half-year-old gorilla survived, but the incident highlights the threat faced by these endangered creatures in the Virunga mountains.
She had been strung up after skipping into one of the looped traps laid by locals, who, trapped themselves by poverty, capture bush animals such as antelope for food. Tragically, the gorillas can fall prey instead.
Yesterday, we reported on the conservation success story of Rwanda’s mountain gorillas, 40 years after they featured on David Attenborough’s Life on Earth.
After his breathtaking film, the profile of the gorillas soared. The introduction of sensitive eco-tourism, daily monitoring and veterinary care has led to an increase in numbers, from fewer than 250 to more than 1,000. They are still endangered, but not critically so.
Yet these pictures illustrate the dangers faced by the gorillas, many descended from the ones Attenborough met.
The snares are generally tied to a bamboo pole, the loop hidden on the ground among leaves, rigged up to a twig which acts as a trigger once it is stepped on.
The young gorilla we heard of was released with no harm done. Left any longer and her attempts to get free could have resulted in a wound, followed by infection, which may have led to amputation to avoid a slow, painful death.
Dr Noheli says: “I have carried out many amputations. Afterwards, females can live a fairly normal life, but silverbacks can’t fight and lead their group, and then they become lone.
“Living alone, they waste the chance to reproduce.”
Just before we fly home, we get news that Gorilla Doctors on the Ugandan side of the same forest have found a 20-year-old female gorilla in a snare.
In the heartbreaking photos, she appears completely immobile, rendered so by shock or pain, or both. Thankfully, she too was freed quickly, unharmed.
She was rescued thanks to the fact the apes are so closely monitored. Antipoaching teams patrol the forest every day, removing snares in an endless fight to avoid heartbreaking scenes like these. Last year, around 600 were removed, and because of their unrelenting efforts fewer gorillas get caught. Trekking in the forest we meet Mike Ninsnma, 27, who clutches two snares he has found that morning.
I hold one and feel how sharp the knotted plastic fibres are.
He tells me: “I have hunted over 20km for five hours. Sometimes I might find two, sometimes 10. Sometimes we come across the poachers and surround them, and arrest them.”
The penalties are tough, often a few weeks in prison.
But, says Dr Noheli: “If the snares weren’t being cleared, we would see more gorillas trapped and hurt.”
The use of these snares will not end
just by collecting them up. It will only cease when the people who live on the fringes of these forests, the gorillas’ closest neighbours, are provided with other means to feed their families. Concerted efforts are being made to give people alternatives, with initiatives such as the Iby’lwacu Cultural Village, nicknamed Guardians of the Gorillas, on the edge of the national park. Here, reformed poachers demonstrate traditional music and crafts for tourists, enabling them to earn a living without putting the gorillas at risk. The non-profit organisation also sponsors co-operatives, including potato farming and weaving, involving about 2,500 locals. A water pump on site also provides for 4,000 people, who collect from it instead of using the forest lake. Here, we meet Felicien Kabatsi, 62, who finally stopped laying snares five years ago after depending on them for food to feed his family of 10 children for decades.
He had continued, despite serving a two-year prison sentence. Now, with the village’s help, he farms instead. With us is biologist Ian Redmond, who, as a research assistant studying the gorillas here 40 years ago, introduced Sir David Attenborough to the apes that featured in his film.
And, movingly, it is to Ian, suddenly, that Felicien turns and explains exactly why he felt he had to lay the snares. Felicien makes a startling admission that brings Ian to tears as he truly grasps the desperation behind the crime.
In 1979, Ian made it his mission to cut though as many of the snares as possible with his “panga”, an African machete. Felicien reveals to Ian, who at 64 is so close to his own age, that he would regularly hide nearby and watch with resentment the bearded white man cutting his traps.
He tells a shocked Ian: “We knew it was wrong, I would hide and dodge you – we called you The Panga.
“But my life depended on poaching, there was no other way. My family was more important than the gorillas, and we would be hungry.”
Then Felicien smiles, and tells Ian: “Now it is better. And I can shake you by the hand.”
The moving exchange between two men who were once enemies highlights the progress that is being made. The 600 snares which were removed from the forest last year is down from more than 1,000 four years ago.
Ian is emotional as he admits that he was blinkered to the needs of local people by his passion for the gorillas.
He says, quietly: “I used to deprive his family of food. This is the best understanding I have had. They do what they need to do for their kids.”
Ian adds: “Helping them is the only way that we can protect the gorillas.”
■ To learn more and help protect the gorillas, visit Ape Alliance: Action for Apes at www.4apes.com.
My life depended on poaching there was no other way
FELICIEN KABATSI POACHER TURNED FARMER