Mountain Gorilla Confiscated
On 4 October the Rwandan national park authority and the police rescued
a young gorilla from three poachers who had hidden the infant in a mountain
cave while they awaited a buyer. After the confiscation the female gorilla,
aged 2-3 years, was checked medically and was found to be in good health.
She is under 24-hour care and eating well. It is planned to reintroduce
the infant into a gorilla group as soon as her health is confirmed.
The orphan is called Mvuyekure and is doing well. She is being kept in
quarantine until it is certain that she is not carrying any obvious infectuous
diseases. As she was in contact with many people, it is possible that
she was infected with human diseases that could have catastrophic effects
on the wild gorilla population.
On 25 October, the poachers led the Rwandan national park authority to
the bodies of two adult gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- a female and a blackback. They were probably members of the Chui group,
a wild Congolese mountain gorilla group that had already been identified
by Dian Fossey. Only about 200 m from this place, two more bodies of a
female and a silverback were found. These bodies were much more decayed,
so they must have been killed at an earlier date.
At least nine Rwandans were involved in the mountain gorilla poaching,
but only a few of them were arrested. An international network for the
trafficking of mountain gorilla infants is working in Rwanda, Uganda and
Congo; requests for baby gorillas were registered from Butembo, Kampala
and Rwanda. This network is still active and the poachers have tried to
capture mountain gorilla infants in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
several times. Moreover, in November three men were arrested in the Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park for allegedly hunting gorillas.
Photo: Christopher Whittier
Update: It was planned to re-introduce her to the wild the 24th or 25th January, but Mvuyekure died the 23rd January.