Investigating a Recent Report of the Killing of "Gorillas"

In February 2006 a report was received at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) office in Calabar that a gorilla had been killed at Bumaji, a group of remote villages near the northwestern corner of the Okwangwo Division of Nigeria's Cross River National Park, some 180 km from Calabar. The hunters of Bumaji have a long history of hunting gorillas, and with fewer than 100 Cross River gorillas remaining in Nigeria this was serious news indeed. It was also an area where we had recently been attempting to assist park authorities in improving levels of protection. For instance, in 2005 a ranger post was constructed at Anape, roughly 10 km east of Bumaji, with funding assistance from Kolmården Zoo. We wasted no time in passing the report to the Director of Cross River National Park, and provided some resources for park rangers to investigate the matter.
Park rangers subsequently went to Bumaji and, after conducting inquiries, quickly arrested a man who apparently admitted killing two gorillas inside the park in October 2005. The man, a well-known hunter, was brought to the Park Headquarters in Akamkpa for further investigation, but he subsequently denied any involvement in the killing and was later released on bail. The case has yet to come to court, and unfortunately with no evidence such as a skull or skin available, any prosecution is unlikely to be successful.
Meanwhile doubts began to be expressed concerning the authenticity of the reported gorilla deaths. The name "gorilla" is also applied to chimpanzees in Nigeria, and information of all kinds can be notoriously unreliable. It was suggested to us that the poaching incident may have been reported to the authorities as a result of some local village-level feud. Others expressed doubt as to the validity of the man's original confession. If gorillas were in-deed killed in October 2005, why did the news only leak out in February 2006? In an attempt to gather more reliable information, therefore, we arranged our own enquiry, acknowledging that this incident happened some 5 months previously and it would be difficult to gather any fresh evidence.
Jonas Attah (WCS field assistant, Mbe Mountains) and Columbus Ikpe (Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Becheve Nature Reserve Manager) visited the area to further investigate the matter. Unfortunately they found local people to be hostile and many had already sworn an oath not to divulge any information about the incident to strangers. The two investigators were advised to leave the community or risk personal injury. Under such circumstances it was hardly surprising therefore that only scanty information was made available to the team.
What Attah and Ikpe were told was that a pregnant woman had entered the national park to collect edible leaves (Gnetum africanum) and was disturbed, or perhaps even chased, by two large animals, probably apes. A hunter who happened to be nearby heard her screams and came to her aid, killing both animals. These animals were then butchered in the forest, with various body parts carried back to the village for sharing amongst family members and for sale. None of these body parts were subsequently found in the village.
An accurate description of the animals was not available but they were said to have reddish hands and brown faces. Based on this evidence we think that the animals killed were possibly chimpanzees and not gorillas, although it is likely that we will never know for certain. Like the Cross River gorilla, the local form of chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes vellerosus) is also regarded by IUCN as critically endangered.
What is more certain is that levels of protection for wildlife in the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park remain inadequate. With only a handful of ranger posts situated along the park boundary, the majority of rangers are stationed at the Divisional Headquarters in Butatong. Given the fact that the park is remote and inaccessible, and has few functional vehicles available, large areas receive little attention at all.
Soon after this unfortunate incident a new director of Cross River National Park was appointed. The new Park Director, Steven Haruna, has made improving community relations a priority, recognizing that support and cooperation from surrounding communities is essential for the long-term future of the park. He has already visited the area in order to restore peace and stability and agreed with local community leaders to establish a ranger post in the Bumaji area as soon as possible. It was also agreed to recruit a number of community rangers to assist the park's gorilla monitoring unit and to create a "local advisory committee" to improve dialogue between local communities and park authorities.
WCS is working closely with the new Director and his senior staff to produce a management plan for the park. The management plan aims to make improved protection for the park's remaining gorillas a top priority. Levels of protection in the park can be improved with external assistance and support. Obviously park rangers need field rations, equipment and better training, but experience has shown us that effective protection also requires proper supervision, planning and high levels of discipline. Ranger posts are needed so that rangers are located in the most strategic positions along the park boundary, and from where they can easily access the interior of the park itself.
We have recently secured funding from the WWF African Great Ape Programme and from Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe to help the park build a ranger post at Bumaji. We are also working closely with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Fauna and Flora International to improve levels of infrastructure at other key Cross River gorilla sites in Nigeria.
A third international workshop on the conservation of the Cross River gorilla is planned for April 2006. During this workshop we will formulate priorities for a Conservation Action Plan for the Cross River gorilla to complement those already produced by IUCN for West African chimpanzees and Central African apes in 2005. The workshop will also review proposals for the creation of a trans-boundary protected area spanning the Okwangwo Division of Cross River National Park in Nigeria and Takamanda Forest Reserve (currently proposed as a national park) in Cameroon.

Wildlife Conservation Society

Cross River overview

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