Mountain Gorillas Safe From Devastating Brush Fires

Last Saturday, a brush fire which started at the border of Uganda and Rwanda in the Mufumbiro Mountains, quickly spread and forced the endangered population of gorillas to flee.

The region, which harbors 200 animal species, including the pygmy chimpanzee, commonly known as bonobo, is always at risk due to brush fires started by those who need to exploit the area for survival.  According to Uganda authorities, the fire that raged from Saturday on was indeed started by a farmer harvesting honey.

Due to a severe shortage in water, the fire could not be put out immediately and continued to rage until July 21.

Local authorities reported that the gorillas are safe.  

A huge relief since the population of mountain gorillas counts only about 700 individuals.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November Primate Scoops

Read in the National Geographic News - On November 14, the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICCN) in Goma successfully rescued Mapita, a baby chimpanzee, from Congolese army soldiers who were mistreating her. For more information on the story, go the Virunga National Park blog at: http://gorilla.cd/category/chimpanzees/ ----------- Most touching - Chimpanzee Takes Care of White Tiger Cubs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuzUigpHjMU http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/bizarre&id=6501487 http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/strange/news-article.aspx?storyid=123437&catid=82 ----------- Read in Wired Science - How Biology and Technology Shape Sex and War - see link below.  http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/qa-how-biology.html ----------- Jane Goodall's visit to Taiwan on November 24.  This article found in Taiwan News.   http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=796235&lang=eng_news
Read more

Sharing - Natural Instinct or Learned Behavior? Bonobos Like to Share Their Grub

Bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary for orphaned bonobos in the DRC were part of a recent study led by Dr. Hare of Duke University (NC) and Suzy Kwetuenda from the sanctuary. In this study, a bonobo was given access to food, while another was in an adjacent room. The bonobo with access to the food had two choices: eat the food alone or open the door and let the other bonobo join in to share the food.  Test subjects preferred to voluntarily open the door and share their food. Chimpanzees (and some humans I know) would rather stuff their faces than share with a friend. In his book entitled "Our Inner Ape", Franz De Waal relates an experiment he led.  He introduced two juvenile rhesus macaques (not a species known for peace making skills) among stumptail monkeys for five months. During their stay with the stumptail monkeys, the two rhesus monkeys learned to engage in reconciliation and grooming.  At the end of the experiment, these two juveniles continued to be more...
Read more

Gorillas: Skating on Thin Ice

As we had indicated earlier in this blog, 2009 is the Year of the Gorilla. On January 15, humans dressed in gorilla costumes performed a dance on ice at the Natural History Museum of London.  This was part of the UNEP launch of the Year of the Gorilla. This year will be marked by a number of initiatives to educate and raise awareness on the plight of one of our closest relatives.  More research will also be done in Cameroon and Nigeria to improve community-based conservation efforts aimed at protecting the Cross River Gorilla. Check out this UNEP link to read more about the Projects to Save Africa's Rarest Ape and see pictures of the skating gorillas .
Read more