Gorillas Killed in Bwindi
In mid-March 1995, poachers killed 4 gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable
National Park, near Ruhizha, with spears. The gorillas killed were an
adult female, a blackback male and two juveniles. The first carcass was
found on 19 March, the others later. Some of them were partially mauled
by dogs that probably had accompanied the poachers.
The gorillas belonged to a group of 18 animals, called the Kyaguliro group,
that had been under habituation for some time for scientific research.
Therefore, every group member was individually known. As two gorilla babies
were missing after the incident, it is assumed that the poachers wanted
to capture the babies for smuggling them. To do that, they had to kill
the older animals who defended their young.
Reports on the discovery of the carnage are contradictory. On the one
hand, the animals were reported to have died on 15 or 16 March. According
to other sources, field assistants of the ITFC (Institute of Tropical
Forest Conservation) sighted poachers with spears and dogs on 18 March
and passed on this information, but the rangers did not show any concern
because poachers were regularly in the area. (Already in November 1994,
Jaap Schoorl, the technical advisor of CARE in Bwindi and the responsible
person for anti-poaching measures, had shown us a map of the national
park with multiple-use zones and areas of increased poaching; they overlapped
nearly completely.)
Three suspects were arrested on March 24; five others were still at large.
President Yoweri Museveni ordered that top criminal investigators should
be sent to Kabale. The arrested persons are probably not the ones who
had planned the crime. Employees of the national park may have been involved
in leading the poachers to the gorilla group, which was not easy to locate.
From articles by Ndyakira Amooti in New Vision
Photo: Ulrich Karlowski
Bwindi gorillas