All gorilla, no filler
A CENSUS REVEALS GORILLAS ARE ESCAPING EXTINCTION. FINDS
OUNCING through the undergrowth like a furry football, juvenile gorilla Masanyu is entertaining a small crowd.
One of the amused observers, Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, is especially pleased to see this member of the Rushegura troop.
The only surviving offspring of famous silverback Kanyonyi, he rightly deserves a name which translates as ‘joy’.
Although she’s tracked great apes more than 300 times, Uganda’s first dedicated gorilla doctor is still enchanted by the enigmatic animals inhabiting Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
“Kanyonyi was my favourite,” she says, wistfully recalling the famous mountain gorilla who died in 2017.
“He was wonderful, small but very well-mannered and the women liked him. He’d grown up seeing people all his life.”
When Dr KalemaZikusoka first arrived in Bwindi 25 years ago as a veterinary student, only two groups of Uganda’s mountain gorillas were habituated for tourism, and the species was listed as critically endangered by the International Union For Conservation of Nature.
Today, there are 18 groups visited by tourists, and the number of mountain gorillas in the BwindiSarambwe ecosystem is estimated to be 459, according to recently released results of a 2018 census.
Combined with data from a 2016 survey conducted in the Virunga Massif, that brings the world’s wild population to 1,063 – an increase partly down to work conducted by Dr Kalema-Zikusoka and her team.
Proving that diseases could easily be transmitted between humans, gorillas and livestock, she set up
NGO Conservation Through Public Health to help communities surrounding Bwindi Impenetrable Forest improve their health and hygiene.
“Before we were only looking at parasites, but now we are starting to look more regularly at bacteria salmonella, shigella, the ones that are common in the community which can be fatal to gorillas,” she says back at her research station, where tourists can stay and witness conservation work in action.
The five rooms and two tents are simple. But set high up, where hills roll into infinity and mist rises from the forest canopy like wisps of smoke, they have the best view in Bwindi.
Inside her laboratory, Dr KalemaZikusoka – who was shortlisted for a
Tusk conservation award in 2019 – lines up several plastic pots filled with gorilla faeces, carefully examining their contents under a microscope.
Despite the obvious unpleasantness, collecting samples isn’t easy.
Earlier that morning, we’d battled with stinging nettles and belligerent troops of ants to find nests built by the Rushegura troop the night before.
Every evening, gorillas make a temporary bed from leaves, which they inconveniently position on steep slopes, with the silverback always watching guard from the top.
Conveniently, though, many of them choose to do their morning business here, and once a month samples are collected by CTPH for examination. Rangers in the park have also been trained on how to gather it.
“We started doing it in 2005,” says Dr Kalema-Zikusoka, who is now based in Entebbe but visits Bwindi at least once a month. “We always find parasites, but we then have to decide if a gorilla needs to be treated. We are also finding that some gorillas are getting antibiotic-resistant bacteria through contact with humans.”
Most of this interaction occurs when animals venture beyond the park boundaries into inhabited land.
A dense mass of coiled vines, umbrella ferns and thick vegetation growing on near-vertical slopes, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is surprisingly small. Measuring just 330sq km, it’s possible for the gorillas to walk across it in a matter of hours, and with increasing pressure on space, many groups stray into community areas to raid crops or banana plantations.
Tourism, too, has increased human contact with the apes, and Dr Kalema-Zikusoka is one of the forces behind a campaign to persuade visitors to wear masks during gorilla encounters.
“It’s getting really close; we should be there within the next five years,” she says confidently.
“Some people say it’s not all that helpful wearing a mask, but it makes people conscious that we’re dealing with an endangered species and we have to be careful. It’s symbolic.”
Despite the inevitable impact caused by regular human contact, she is a great supporter of gorilla tourism and even accompanies visitors on treks.
“Conservation efforts are paying off and tourism has really contributed to that,” she claims, referring to the increasing amount of revenue brought into the country.
“Once you have community benefits, local people are more tolerant to gorillas destroying their banana plants.”
Tourists visiting Bwindi can also participate in a coffee safari, learning about the cultivation process from bean to cup.
“Yes, we still get gorillas coming here,” chuckles Sam Karibwende, head of the coffee farmers’ co-operative, which has risen from 75 to 500 members. “But we know how to deal with them.”
And, he admits, gorillas are always full of surprises – something Dr Kalema-Zikusoka knows only too well.
“Every time I learn something new,” she says speaking of her many encounters, which have even involved trekking into the night.
“When it comes to gorillas, you can’t know enough.”