Gorilla Doctors

Category: About MGVP, Inc. | Date: Mar 11 2008 | By: admin

Angolan colobus monkey, Nyungwe, RW

Magda and I recently returned from whirlwind three-day road trip to Nyungwe forest, Rwanda’s newest national park, where we participated in a workshop designed to establish protocols for chimpanzee ecotourism. Magda is a chimp expert, having worked previously at two national parks in Tanzania, Gombe and Mahale. She brought all of her experience and knowledge to share at this meeting. My role was to share the health protocols we currently have in place for the mountain gorillas, as a starting point for Nyungwe.

Forest caterpillar, Nyungwe National Park, RW

During our long drive, I asked Magda dozens of questions. I wanted to know more about how things work at the research and tourist camps in Tanzania, where tracking habituated chimps has been going on for many years. In Nyungwe, the process is beginning with two small chimp communities and one large one. Whereas gorillas live together in stable groups, chimps live in communities of grouped individuals whose composition changes frequently. Like mountain gorillas, chimps are susceptible to human diseases, so the risk of transmission will increase as they become habituated to people.

ORTPN staff Dr. Julius Nziza (veterinarian) in Nyungwe National Park, RW

The workshop was organized by Bill Weber of the Wildlife Conservation Society. He and his wife, Amy Vedder, helped establish ecotourism for mountain gorillas in the late 1980s. Bill understands that establishing protocols for human visitors can go a long way toward preventing problems, so he’d organized a series of meetings to address all aspects of park management, including health. Magda and I were happy to find that Dr. Julius Nziza had just arrived at Nyungwe as the on-site vet. We’ve invited him to several sessions of our MGVP training rounds and he’s keen to learn more. His participation will be key.

Male chimpanzee, Nyungwe National Park, RW

During the workshop, Magda and I discussed the findings of a newly-published scientific paper http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982208000171. Chimp researchers in the Tai forest (Ivory Coast, Africa) observed multiple outbreaks of respiratory illness in their subject animals. The morbidity rate, or the percent of the animals affected in each chimp community, was high (average 92.2%.) In several outbreaks, as many as eight individuals from one community died (18%.) Respiratory outbreaks also occurred among people living in the research camp. Though her own findings have not been published, Magda has treated chimps suffering from bacterial pneumonia thought to be secondary to a viral respiratory infection—introduced by humans.

Male chimpanzee, Nyungwe National Park, RW

The Tai forest paper examined the source of the respiratory viruses. Though samples were available for only a handful of outbreaks, the results clearly showed that the chimps were infected with one of two types of human-origin Paramyxovirus. The virus strains matched epidemics circulating in people elsewhere in the world, including Asia and North America. This data proves what scientists have long suspected, a suspicion strong enough to serve as the basis for our current gorilla ecotourism guidelines: that humans have introduced novel pathogens into populations of free-living great apes.

Three male chimpanzees, Nyungwe National Park, RW

Tourists and researchers are not the only risk to the chimps (or gorillas.) Disease outbreaks that occur in villages bordering parks like Nyungwe also pose a huge threat. Anyone who lives in the community can pick up an infection and bring it to the park, including staff members. An outbreak of meningitis, for example, could spread quickly. Humans can be vaccinated against these and other diseases, but vaccination is logistically a very difficult procedure with free-living apes—and chimps can move faster and farther than gorillas. Clearly, prevention of disease transmission is the key.

Three male chimpanzees, Nyungwe National Park, RW

With respect to health protocols for ecotourism, we cannot know for certain if a visitor has just been exposed to a nasty virus. Obviously, keeping a safe distance from the chimps or gorillas reduces the risk of disease transmission—and it’s also important in terms of minimizing stress to the animals But under favorable conditions of temperature, moisture, and wind, aerosolized droplets containing diseases can survive longer and float farther than most of us can imagine. Face masks can greatly reduce the spread of disease, but only if used properly.

Drs. Julius Nziza (ORTPN) and Magdalena Braum (MGVP) examine the carcass of a dead monkey in Nyungwe National Park, RW

Throughout our formal and informal discussions at Nyungwe, I stressed the importance of practicing good basic hygiene—on the part of both staff and tourists. Frequent hand-washing with soap and water and wearing only clean clothes in and out of the forest are relatively easy precautions to note and remember. Guide and tracker health is equally important. We recommended that Nyungwe adopt an employee health program similar to the one MGVP supports in the Virungas.

Tea plantation near Nyungwe National Park, RW

In addition, Julius plans to become acquainted with the local health officials so that if there is an outbreak of illness in the community, he’ll know about it. In such a case, the wisest move may be to stop chimp visits until the illness has been identified and contained. Finally, all of these preventive measures must be communicated to tourists, researchers, and park staff effectively and regularly. If people don’t understand the risks, they’re less likely to follow the hygiene and distance protocols that are in place.

Male chimpanzee feasting on ripe figs, Nyungwe National Park, RW

As Magda and I learned for ourselves during the two days we tracked chimps at Nyungwe, distance is less of a problem while the chimps are not yet habituated to humans. On our first day, we found three males feasting on figs. They hooted several times. Magda explained they were calling the females, who weren’t likely to show up with all of us around. I’d never seen any animal fill his mouth as full as one chimp did with figs. Had I not seen him put the fruit in his mouth, I would have thought something was wrong with his face!

Fresh chimpanzee track, Nyungwe National Forest, RW

On the second day, we spent the morning criss-crossing a patch of forest with the trackers, looking for the same chimp community we’d visited the day before. Though we could hear the chimps—their voices echoed from at least two locations—and found fresh tracks, we made little progress for several hours. Finally, we tracked a group of chimps making their way to the familiar fig tree. Three males climbed up to feed, though not the same trio as the day before. Once again, they called to the females; once again, none appeared. Magda and I left Nyungwe worrying less about disease for the time being. But when the chimps do become fully habituated, the risks will increase exponentially.

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