Gorilla Doctors

Category: Monitoring Visits | Date: Sep 15 2008 | By: Dr. Lucy for gorilladoctors

Getting back to my phone conversation with Elisabeth, I knew that Kwitonda and his group had suffered through a severe outbreak of respiratory illness just last year in April (2007). Maybe this one wouldn’t be so bad. The group should have some immunity to the infectious organism, most likely a virus, if it’s the same or related to the one that affected them last year. I remember it vividly because a tiny baby, the three-month-old infant of Mugeni, succumbed suddenly (link). The mother had shown only mild signs and her baby none until it died—presumably of an overwhelming viral respiratory infection. The incident cemented in my mind the importance of preventing these outbreaks at their source if we can, because once they hit, there’s nothing we can do for the very youngest of the group. And the babies and infants are, of course, the future of the population.

Okapi, one of the juveniles in Kwitonda Group, is eating fine despite a mild cough.

I heard a cough even before we reached the group—just one. As usual, the sound, a loud short burst of expelled air, took me by surprise. It came from somewhere down and to the right of where we’d been climbing. The tracker, Jerome, and I scoured the trees to find the source. We could see branches moving in the distance. Then I saw a young gorilla, probably Ndimubanzi (nee mu ban zee) crossing a stream. Seconds later, we reached the group resting at the base of a clump of trees. One of the females, Mbimbilibili (mim bili bili) coughed softly three times. I craned my neck to see her face. She gazed back at me bright-eyed with no nasal discharge, a good sign. One of her offspring, Chiri, picked her nose but then tumbled around in play. Ndimubanzi appeared minutes later in a closer tree and coughed twice, confirming our earlier guess.

Mugeni , one of the adult females in Kwitonda Group, showed no signs of illness during the 2008 respiratory outbreak.

On my way out of the forest I called Elisabeth on the cell phone and suggested that I become the vet assigned to the Kwitonda Group Respiratory Illness—in case it turned out to be a severe one. That way, she and Jean Felix could continue to check other groups as needed. As an extra precaution, I also asked that the park service assign the same guide to visit the group, and that no trackers move from one group to the other. The vets have limited their movements during these illnesses, but we haven’t asked the park staff to do the same. Though these may sound like obvious and easy preventive measures, tracking and visiting the gorillas on a daily basis involves a complex set of logistics. As I’ve stressed during our meetings, the key is that no one sick goes to work. Unless you’re coughing or sneezing, you’re not likely to spread a disease. So while we can, and have, limited where staff go, it’s how we’re feeling each day that matters.

Mugeni ‘s infant played and played, showing no signs of illness during this year’s (2008) outbreak of respiratory disease in Kwitonda’s Group.

On my next several visits, the Kwitonda gorillas were feeding high up in the Drombere trees eating flowers. I’d hear a cough and then wait and wait until I could see exactly who produced it. The trackers did a terrific job keeping notes, too. They’re understanding of this disease and why we worry about it has increased greatly. The outbreak was indeed very mild, though it steadily spread through the group with one or two new individuals affected each day. Mugeni, who has a new infant, coughed only a few times on one day. Thankfully, her new baby never showed signs of any illness. He played and played.

Silverback Kwitonda, on the day after he fought with one of his group’s blackbacks.

The silverback, Kwitonda, was the only gorilla to cough for more than two days in a row. He ate well and moved about normally until we found him one morning unwilling to get up from his nest. When he finally sat up, I could see he had a swollen lip and bruised forehead. I felt relieved that all he’d had was a fight with one of the young males in the group. In fact, on that day and the next, Kwitonda’s cough was the least of his worries. Had the situation been different and we hadn’t just been through such severe outbreaks in two other groups, I’m not sure we would have placed much significance on this mild Kwitonda Group cough. As they say, context is everything.

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