The camera zoomed in on Ndeze as she fell from a tree branch and hit the ground with a thud. Several people in the auditorium gasped, including me. Here I was, worrying about Ndeze as if I didn’t know her! On the contrary, I’d been right there when she was filmed for National Geographic’s “Gorilla [...]
One Gorilla Saved (FROM 6.28.07) Our newest orphan is bouncing back from a severe illness. And now she has a name, Ndakasi (en-dah-KA-si). A week ago, the two-month old gorilla could barely breathe, as if her lungs had shut down. Our tentative diagnosis was acute viral infection, possibly an influenza virus or one called respiratory [...]
Ndakasi one year ago, part 1: The Newest Orphan (FROM 6.22.07) Ndakasi sick with pneumonia one year ago, June 2007. Recently, a mother gorilla was shot and killed in the Parc National des Virungas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She had a young infant, between two and three months old. The park rangers, [...]
It’s been a year since the smallest of the two mountain gorilla orphans, Ndakasi, nearly died of pneumonia. Ndeze was rescued about a month later–neither of their rescue stories have appeared on this blog so I’ll post them over the next few days. It’s too early to revisit Mapendo’s case. She’s always been healthy, actually. [...]
Elisabeth and I trekked up to Susa Group again the morning after the intervention for Ururabo and her sick baby. Magda and Jean Felix had gone to Kigali for an important meeting on the topic of gorilla visitation rules, a timely subject. My job today was not only to check on our patient but to [...]
Susa Group moving through the bamboo zone on Day 21, the start of the third week of the respiratory outbreak. The gorillas had moved into a bamboo thicket by the time we were ready. The dense vegetation offered plenty of good hiding places for darting, but the trackers felt the place wasn’t safe enough for [...]
Ururabo’s three-month-old infant on Day 15 of the respiratory outbreak in Susa, before he became critically ill. Ururabo’s baby became critically ill six days after we thought he’d recovered from a runny nose and soft cough. We’d been checking him daily, along with all of the mothers and infants. Magda had seen him the day [...]
Ururabo’s three-month old baby sick with nasal discharge, cough, and lethargy. On Day 15 of the Susa Group respiratory outbreak, a cool, rainy morning, I stood in one place for two hours watching three sick gorillas. The longer I stayed, the more I worried about what we’d find the next day. Ururabo, a first-time mother [...]
