Gorilla Doctors

Mushya eating and playful, four-and-a-half weeks post treatment.

In recent weeks, Mushya has taken me on a roller coaster ride.  I’ve been visiting Isabukuru Group regularly to check on him and his mother, Icyizere.  He’s looked better each time, yet his fragile condition has worried me.  Only now, five weeks after treatment, am I convinced that he’ll survive, at least in the short term.  The reason: Icyizere.  She is strong and active—and producing more milk.  None of us imagined that one dose of ivermectin would make such a difference, especially since we hadn’t believed that she herself was ill.   Mushya had been our target.

We’d suspected all along, ever since Magda’s first check, that Mushya wasn’t getting enough milk.  A mother gorilla with a one-year-old infant would normally have bulging mammary glands.  Icyizere’s were almost flat.  We’d concluded that her lack of milk production was due to one of two things.  It could be a natural phenomenon—maybe she wasn’t producing adequate milk simply because this was her first infant.  Alternatively, Mushya’s itchy skin and stunted growth could mean he was too weak to nurse strongly enough, or often enough, to stimulate her mammary glands.  But we were wrong.  Icyizere’s parasites were part, if not all, of the problem.

Icyizere’s mammary gland size increasing three weeks post-treatment.

When she’s feeding, Icyizere tends to sit in one place and eat all she can within reach, turning slowly as she does so, which makes it easy for us to see Mushya—unless they’re sitting among dense vegetation.  Like all infant gorillas, he’s also interested in watching me while I observe him.  On my three-week post treatment visit, we arrived early enough to find the two of them still in the night nest.  Icyizere was picking at a few plants and chewing on bits of bark while the infant clung to her hip.  When she turned, I noticed something distinctly different: her mammary glands looked bigger.

Mushya with Icyizere in dense vegetation, three weeks post-treatment.

It’s not easy to retrieve a fecal sample from an infant, so I was pleased when the tracker found one of Mushya’s in the night nest.  We collected a sample from Icyizere as well.  Meanwhile, she’d moved into a clump of thorny berry bushes, where she stayed for the better part of the next three hours.  It was a cool cloudy day and the gorillas were up high, at about 3300 meters.  I could see Mushya’s hands reaching out for bits of food, but he huddled so close to his mother to keep warm that it was difficult to judge his overall condition.  As rain approached, I left with icy hands and feet.

Mushya with Icyizere, four weeks post-treatment.

Hiking back down the mountain, I found myself dreading the fecal exam results.  From what I’d seen of Mushya, he didn’t look much different.  In fact, his hair coat looked even scruffier.  I couldn’t decide if the bare patches of skin were just more obvious because he’d grown some patches of newer, longer hair, or if his skin problem had taken a turn for the worse.  The parasite load could be increasing again.  At one point, he’d stuck his tongue out while grabbing at a piece of plant, and I’d thought it looked pinker.  On the other hand, he didn’t seem nearly as bright and active on this day as he had on the day right after the intervention.

Mushya chewing on thistle, four weeks post-treatment.

But the fecal results revealed surprisingly good news: both mother and infant were negative for parasites!  Indeed, I hadn’t imagined the change in Icyizere.  Without a load of worms competing for calories, her nutritional condition was better, accounting for the increase in her more milk.  Our findings also indicated that there was little more we could do for Mushya.  Not only was he no longer burdened by a heavy load of parasites, his mother’s improved condition was giving him access to more milk.   Icyizere was the key to his future health.

Mushya still itchy, but stronger, four weeks post treatment.

A week later, there was no question about Icyizere.  She looked the picture of health.  But Mushya was scratching—nonstop.  He’d also developed several circular, crusted scabs on his back, hips, and left shoulder.  Though some of these lesions were in the areas where we’d taken the skin scraping, others looked new, or at least newly apparent.  I couldn’t decide if he was itchy because the skin problem was recurring—perhaps as part of the healing process–or if the mosquitoes and flies were bothering him.  But after ten minutes, he began to look a lot better, playing, eating, and climbing all over his mother.  Maybe he was just feeling well enough to scratch harder!

Mushya nursing, four-and-a-half weeks post treatment.

I went back to check him four days later, figuring that although there was no new move to we could make, we should at least document the return of the itchiness.  This time we found the mother and infant resting in a day nest.  It was a bright sunny day, and Icyizere seemed to be enjoying the warmth.  Seconds later, Mushya began to nurse.  He wasn’t just letting the milk dribble into his mouth the way I’d seen in the past, he was really drinking, and he kept it up for several minutes.  Less than two hours later, he nursed again.  This time he changed sides twice and even made gurgling noises!  My roller coaster was on the way back up.

Mushya chewing on gallium, four-and-a-half weeks post treatment.

On my most recent visit, five weeks after our initial treatment, Mushya looked even better.  Isabukuru had moved the group to Bikereri, a steep hilly area on the slopes of Karisimbi volcano, a site full of wild celery and scattered hygenia trees.  The gorillas were all feeding in hazy morning sunshine, with rain clouds on the horizon.  I sat down on a soft clump of plants to watch.  Icyizere was eating thistle, carefully folding the leaves and flowers into her mouth.  As bits of uneaten food dropped in her lap, Mushya was there to grab them, stuffing them into his own mouth.  He glanced in my direction, opened his mouth wide, and stuck out his pink tongue–which made me smile. Though his gums are still a bit pale, they’re no longer a scary white color.

Mushya chewing on a leaf, five weeks post-treatment.

Our plan is to continue checking on mother and infant, at least until Mushya looks as healthy as he’s been acting.  But even then, his long-term future is uncertain.  His growth has been stunted and his immune system may not be strong enough to fight off future infections.  In the meantime, we’re still wondering why the parasites caused such a problem to begin with.   I’m reminded once again of just how much we have left to learn about the mountain gorilla.

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