Most of my work is centred around
providing veterinary care for the endangered
mountain gorilla. There are only 650 mountain
gorillas left in the world and Uganda is home
to half of them. Therefore I spend a lot of my
time in the field attending to mountain gorilla
cases especially those where individuals get a
serious disease. Early in October of last year
I was called to attend to sick mountain
gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National
Park. I was out of the country at the time and
asked Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Centre vet
Ken Cameron to go as the case was urgent. I
travelled with vet Jean Bosco Nizeye to join
Ken a few days later. We found that these
two gorillas were getting better and their
fighting wounds and skin disease was healing
However we found a more serious case, one
young gorilla had a third degree rectal
prolapse which is a very serious condition.
Much to our surprise anti hatter for the gorilla
the prolapse treament, adding on
to
our
knowledge of gorilla health. We also found
that the rangers were finding it difficult to
identify individual
gorillas, and in particular they could not
identify the young gorilla,
Banshekura
that
had suffered from the prolapse. So they
were given a crash course in identifying
gorillas by nose prints, by one of late Dr. Dian
Fosseys trackers, Francois Bigirimana, who
luckily was at the park for a gorilla emus.
Census finds approximately
293 gorillas in Bwindi:
Last year a census was carried out in
Iraq by declaring a curfew and having every
citizen locked up in a house for a head count.
Goodj ob! But how do you take a census of
wild gorillas in an impenetrable jungle?
Well there is a trick to it. In October
last year Uganda Wildlife Authorit together
with World Conservation Society (WCS) and
International Gorilla Conservation
Programme (IGCP) used a new method to
count the gorillas. 6 teams swept through
the forest at one go over a period of 6 weeks
and counted 3 consecutive gorilla night nests
for each gorilla group. I participated in the
census for 1 week, and would have loved to
stay for longer, but had to attend
to
other
issues in other parks. However in dud short
time I really got involved and learnt a lot
about gorilla ecology. We were also aided
by GPS machines to give us accurate
positions of where we were in the forest The
last census had been done over a period of
about 6 months also counting night nests in
the same way. but was not as accurate as it
counted twice.
Birth of an infant gorilla
during a tourist visit!:
An amazing incident happened in
Bwindi last November. Tourists led by ranger
guide, William Betunga, went to visit the
gorilla group and found dud the normally shy
female, Nyabilono could easily be seen and
not only that, she was giving birth! This was
very exciting and the baby was christened
Magoba,
which means "profits" in Rukiga
(probably because the infant was seen being
born.
At Semliki Valley Wildlife
Reserve:
Semliki in Western Uganda used to
formerly be called Toro Game Reserve. This
game reserve suffered greatly from
appoaching in the 1970s and 80s, and many
animals were decimated, However the park
is still very beautiful with tall golden savannah
grassland and forest, and some animals like
Uganda kob, black and white colobus
monkeys, chimpanzees, elephants and
buffaloes can be seen.
In Late November I went and trained
10 rangers
to
take samples from dead animals
for purposes of health monitoring. it was
encouraging to find that the park now has
increased protection from poachers, and I feel
that it is now safe for the Jackson's
Hartebeest which was poached
to
extinction
This translocation is in the early stages of
planningg.
Opening up of Chimpanzee
Exhibit:
In early November, I went to the
opening of the Budongo forest Chimpanzee
house at the Uganda Wildlife Education
Centre (former Entebbe zoo). The guest of
honor was the Ugandan first lady, Mrs. Janet
Museveni. The exhibit is a spacious house
connected to a small island with some trees
and plenty of space where the chimpanzees
can carry out their normal daily activities. It is
a big step forward in advancing the welfare of
chimpanzees
in
Uganda.
Buffalo Research:
Hopefully Dr. Richard Kock, senior vet
adviser to Kenya Wildlife Service, is coming
to Uganda and will assist
us to
carry out
rinderpest research of buffaloes over the next
few years, with fivid ing from European
Union. These investigations are very
important because cattle and buffalo can
easily transmit diseases to each other
especially in areas where cattle illegally cross
into buffalo territory at the park boundaries.
Post-mortem on Mountain
Gorilla:
Early in December I was called to
Ruhija at Bwindi to carry out a post-mortem
on an adult ffemale gorilla from the research
group that had died. I was assisted by Drs.
Ken Cameron (formerly of Cincinnati zoo) and
Tony Mudakikwa of Mountain Gorilla
Veterinary Centre in Rwanda. This is die first
hospital built for mountain gorillas at the
request of late Dr. Dian Fossey and set up by
the first vet, late Dr. James Foster.
We found that the gorilla had died from
severe enteritis, an intestinal disease. It is
very important to find out whether the disease
in this gorilla was human related as gorillas
are very closely related to us genetically, so I
sent samples to USA for further microscopic
analysis.
Workshop on Mountain
Gorillas:
After the hectic schedule of 1997, an
international Mountain Gorilla Population and
Habitat Viability Assessment Workshop
(PHVA) was held at Sheraton Hotel,
Kampala. At the workshop, UWA was
commended for the thorough investigation of
the Scabies disease out break in one of the
Bwindi tourist groups of gorillas in 1996. 1
took the opportunity to express my frustration
with laboratory technicians in Uganda who
threw away some of the scabies samples sent
there. So unfortunately we have not been able
to find out the source of the scabies, and are
concerned that the source may be human.
There is an urgent need for better laboratory
facilities in Uganda, and pan of the plans of
the vet unit is to develop basic capacity to deal
with this.
Crocodile Farm Visit:
After the mountain gorilla PHVAI
continued on
to
a crocodile farm where I took
advantage of the expertise of John and
Margaret Cooper who had also come for the
mountain gorilla PHVA. Professor John
Cooper of DICE University in Kent, who is a
reptile expert, and his wife, Margaret Cooper,
an environmental lawyer, assisted me to
assess the health condition of crocodiles on a
privately owned farm. We found some
problems and the farmer got valuable advice
on the welfare of his crocodiles. Hopefully his
farm will improve.
Update on Translocated
Giraffes:
The translocated giraffes, Nakuru and
Kenya are doing well in Kidepo Valley
National Park and rangers are watching over
them like a hawk. They have integrated well
with the Ugandan group. Although
unfortunately Hercules, the only translocated
male, was eaten by a lion (with expensive
tastes!) just 6 weeks after they were released
into the park. This was very depressing after
all the efforts and expense to get him safely
to Uganda. We are very gratefull to Peter
Moeller, warden engineer of Kidepo, who
managed to obtain fundss from Frankfurt
Zoological Society which covered most of the
costs of the giraffe translocation. We are also
very grateful to USAID, European Union in
Uganda and Giraffe Centre in Kenya who
contributed funds for this exercise.
Future Plans:
1. Fund-raising for a long wheel base
four wheel drive vehicle to get me to the
parks and carry all my equipment and
assistant ranger when I am in the parks
.
2. Setting up a veterinary clinic with good
basic laboratory facilities.
3. Employing more people in the vet unit:vets,
vet technician and rangers.
4. Planning translocations of more animals, in
particular elephants from Luweero a built up
rural am where they are raiding crops to
Murchison Falls National Park where they
are too few.
Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!
* Bornfree Foundation for $1300 to help
purchase drugs for mountain gorillas,
elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas, Uganda
kobs.
* Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for an AppleMac
computer that has made a real difference to
my work since May 1997 and $300 towards
veterinary supplies.
* Care for the World for the Suzuki jeep,
veterinary supplies and camera that have kept
me on the move since April 1997. Up until
then I often had to borrow my mother's car,
which she so generously lent me, to get
around.
* AHEAD program in USA for fumding
towards a year of e-mail.
* Individuals who have generously sent me
donations in the form of money, equipment,
and fundraising assistance for the vet unit;
towards building a vet clinic, the gorilla project
and other needs. I would like to thank Daphne
Hamer, Keith Sprout, Mike Crew, Lynda
Jenkins, Nft. J. Slater, Peter Kaluba, John
Hacon, Ralph Garret, Bob Lewis,and, Martin,
Lwanga, who has generously offered to print
this first issue for me for free.
Address:
Dr. Gladys Kalenia
Uganda Wildlife Authority
P.O. Box 3530
Kampala, Uganda
Telephone: 256-41-346287/288
Fax: 256-41-346291
E-mail: gkalema@starcom.co.ug
Editor- M. Maran Lwanga
