By Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka | Founder and CEO
Gorilla Guardians of Bwindi Report for GlobalGiving July 2022
This report covers the progress on Conservation Through Public Health’s project on GlobalGiving, ‘The Gorilla Guardians of Bwindi, Uganda #44078.
Our last report was submitted in March 2022. By that time, the project had a total of 228 donations from 121 donors with six donors giving on a monthly basis, and one fundraiser. Todate, the project has 261 donations from 123 donors with 6 monthly donors and 1 fundraiser in 2 years.
What we have done
Gorilla Health Monitoring
Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) field team led by the Wildlife Health and laboratory Technichian continued to carry out routine gorilla health monitoring through non-invasive gorilla fecal sample collection from gorilla night nests, from all the 22 habituated gorilla groups of Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Area (BMCA).
Since the last report (from March 2022 to date), our field team managed to collect 680 gorilla faecal samples and analysed them to identify any diseases gorillas have and that they could be sharing with people and livestock neighboring the gorilla habitat.
All these samples were stored in formalin and analysed for parasites at the Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Center (CTPH’s on site field laboratory) and stored in RNAlater and analysed for SARS-COV-2 that causes COVID-19 at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI)
New Gorilla Births
In May 2022, Uganda Wildlife Authority announced the news of the birth of a new gorilla in Nshongi Gorilla Group. This new gorilla brought the total number of individuals in this group of the Rushaga sector of Bwindi from 12 to 13 members. During our routine gorilla health monitoring, our team found the baby, Adult Female Birungi, the mother and Bweza, the father, in good health.
Still in May 2022, Christmas family in the Nkuringo sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park received a newborn gorilla to adult female Kiiza. With this new birth, the number of mountain gorillas in the Christmas family has grown to a total of eight.
In June 2022, we received a newborn to adult female, Betina of the Mukiza mountain gorilla family. This brought the number of gorillas in this family to grow to 17 gorillas
The new births are a testimony to the excellent work done by our teams, communities, partners and supporters in conserving these iconic species.
Gorilla Guardians receive brand new gum boots
In June 2022, Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) team together with Uganda Wildlife Authority distributed brand new gumboots to all the 119 Gorilla Guardians of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
We would like to thank Milkywire and all the individual donors on GlobalGiving for all the generous support towards the Gorilla Guardians of Bwindi.
On a sad note!
On 4th July, we lost an infant gorilla in Binyindo gorilla family. The infant fell from a tree and sustained grave injuries and by the time the team reached at the scene, the baby had died.
Links:
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