CONSERVATION

UP CL OSE: IAN REDMOND Ambassador, UN Year of the Gorilla (YoG)

You visited Gabon in September. economic imperative to protect What was your impression of the the forests and the wildlife living Year o f conservation work underway and within them. the political will behind it? Gabon is one of the world’s most Over the past year you have visited important countries in terms of several countries as part of your role numbers and habitat. I saw my first as Ambassador for the YoG. What western lowland gorillas here in was your aim in doing this? 1997. In September I was taken to The UN YoG is a global partnership of the go rilla Lopé National Park and interviewed people, governments and organisa - scientists, government officials and tions. It was created to support the The United Nations has declared 2009 the Year of the Gorilla. All four the country’s environment minister. Gorilla Agreement, a new legally- All were keen to emphasise Gabon's binding treaty between the countries subspecies are under threat but several pioneering projects in Gabon are commitment to gorilla conservation, where gorillas live, negotiated under helping to save some of our closest cousins from extinction while recognising there is a problem the Convention on Migratory Species. with poaching and illegal trade. Almost all the African countries I It is clear that the new President visited for YoG were countries with N 1847 , AN AMERICAN MISSIONARY BASED AT Institute (IRET) and the University of Kyoto, funded by has strong environmental policies. gorilla populations. I hoped to inter - Gabon’s Presbyterian Baraka Mission in Libreville the Japan International Co-operation Agency. Our hope is that Gabon will play a view people living near gorilla habi - was given the skull of a creature that resembled The tropical forests of Central Africa are home to two key role in the negotiations for the tat in each of these ten countries, that of a man. Until then, the gorilla was unknown great ape species, the chimpanzee and the western new global agreement on climate and in the capital cities where conser - to science although early historic accounts had lowland gorilla. “There is no other place in the world change in which the function of vation decisions are made. The aim mentioned sightings of “hairy people”. That skull, where these two types of great apes have anything like tropical forests in global climate was an overview of the state of the now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at as great a distribution pattern,” says primatologist stability is expected to be gorilla. My blog and findings can be IHarvard University in the United States, was the first Caroline Tutin, co-founder of the Gorilla and recognised so there will be an found online at www.YoG2009.org scientific evidence of the existence of what was then Chimpanzee Research Station at Lopé National Park. dubbed the Troglodyte savage – the gorilla. Most of the world’s western lowland gorillas are Its discovery sent shockwaves through the scientific found in the Republic of Congo, but a significant community at a time when the intellectual world was proportion also live in Gabon. Its national parks were polarised over evolutionary theories. The existence of surveyed between 2003 and 2009 by field teams from this man-like ape, later revealed to share around 95 per the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the cent of our DNA, was seized upon by Darwinians as Worldwide Fund for Nature. further evidence of a missing link. “Each site was surveyed on foot using a series of In 1856 in Gabon, the French-American explorer Paul lines that covered the whole of the area, sampling du Chaillu became the first white man to see this myste - each habitat in the same proportion in which it rious animal in the wild. “I found myself face to face occurred at the site,” explains WCS primatologist with a monster whose ferocity, strength and cunning I Fiona Maisels. “The teams recorded all the nest groups had heard much about from the natives; an animal that they saw and mapped them using GPS so that an UN YoG ambassador Ian Redmond is a tropical field hardly known to the civilised world,” he wrote. overall country map [see diagram, right] could be biologist and conservationist, renowned for his work S

It took scientists many more years to realise that there created. The northeast, once a stronghold for great S

E with great apes and elephants. For 30 years he has been N

was more than one subspecies of gorilla and that it was apes, has suffered a series of epidemics in the last 15 N

A associated with mountain gorillas through research, A

far from ferocious, but a sensitive, vulnerable creature, years which has reduced ape numbers to a shadow of N filming, tourism and conservation work R O

and never more so than today. Sadly, the subspecies what was there before. However, there are still impor - L found in Gabon, the western lowland gorilla, was listed tant ape populations in the centre, south and west of The map right shows, in 2007 by the International Union for Conservation of the country, away from major towns.” schematically, overall Minkébé

Nature (IUCN) to be “critically endangered”. Despite their extensive distribution, ape populations distribution of great Akanda Mwagne LIBREVILLE Gabon’s leading role in the study of the gorilla are in serious trouble and in spectacular decline for apes in Gabon using Monts de Cristal continues to this day and there are a range of projects three principal reasons. These are hunting, disease and data collected between Ivindo Pongara taking place across the country. One of the most habitat loss. In Gabon, habitat loss is not an issue, but 2003-2009. The darker Lopé pioneering involves its habituation to humans, a the network of logging roads has hugely facilitated the green, the more process far more demanding than with the mountain poaching in the last few decades, allowing access to often apes (or rather Wonga Wongué FRANCEVILLE Waka Mount G gorilla due to the tendency of the lowland species to once-remote forest tracts. The second cause of ape ape nest groups) are Birougou Loango Batéké forage further. Gabon’s most successful attempt is population decline in Gabon is the deadly Ebola disease. likely to be encoun - Plateaux Moukalaba taking place at Moukalaba Doudou National Park Probably over half of all Gabon’s gorillas have disap - tered. Each pink spot is Doudou where scientists have become the first to fully habituate peared since the 1980s due to hunting and Ebola. I the site of a specific

a group of wild lowland gorillas as part of a collabora - S survey and the size of it Mayumba Sarah Monaghan C W kilometres N tion between Gabon’s Tropical Ecology Research / is representative of the 0 F W C I W relative abundance of H E P C A R ape nests R

U Main rivers Towns National parks G

O O S E G L A N O I T

A . . N 34 GABO N WINTER 2009 GABO N WINTER 2009 35 CONSERVATION

FIRST STEPS INTO THE WILD FORENSIC SCIENCE GIVES CLUES

HO KILLED PORTHOS? That individuals that cannot be seen or Below: Kathryn our surprise, the DNA identified the was the crucial question captured, material such as hair Jeffery, director of new silverback as none other than W researchers asked when a provides a potential goldmine of SEGC. Genetic stud - Yorick. Whether Yorick’s subsequent silverback gorilla was found dead in the genetic information. For humans, this ies of gorillas have death was as a result of this fight we forest. The answer came thanks to the is usually done to trace criminals, but been developed can never know, but the female was application of a technique associated its potential has importance for the here to support the traced to a third group, where she with solving crimes – forensic science. diminishing western lowland gorilla. long-term study of remained for some time. The Gorilla and Chimpanzee Research Our team later analysed shed hairs gorilla ecology. By The information has helped SEGC Station (SEGC), established in 1983 at collected from the night nests of generating genetic understand the circumstances under Lopé National Park, was the country’s gorillas in the area, and generated profiles and track - which females transfer between first ape-research and conservation proj - DNA ‘fingerprints’. The results were ing gorillas through groups. Understanding how fast, how ect. Its scientists work in an area of intriguing. We traced an adult female the population, far and under what conditions goril - about 100 square kilometres of from Porthos’ group to a new silver - SEGC is able to las move within a population is valu - stunning forest and savannah mosaic back on the same day of the fight. provide life-history able for predicting the effects of on the River Ogooué watershed. SEGC If this female was the only one in information about threats such as hunting and disease. has pioneered research into great ape Porthos’ group when he died (and the movements of As is often the case in human foren - ecology and conservation and published evidence suggests this), then this the gorillas, help - sics, insufficient evidence prevented us dozens of groundbreaking papers. finding identified the new male as ing us to under - from making definitive conclusions With the support of the laboratory the most likely accomplice, and there - stand better their about the identity of Porthos’ killer. facilities at its headquarters, the fore, Porthos’ mystery murderer. social behaviour Nevertheless, the quest to resolve this International Centre of Medical Furthermore, it meant we had and dispersal mystery may help in the ongoing battle Research in Franceville (CIRMF) – detected the transfer of a female patterns to preserve some of our closest relatives which is responsible for breakthroughs between groups on the very day it from threats to their survival. IX INFANT AND juvenile western The Fernan-Vaz seven, had been orphaned by the aspire to having the world’s largest into Ebola and HIV – SEGC specialises occurred and could tell exactly how lowland gorillas rescued from Gorilla Project at illegal-bushmeat trade. They had captive population of chimpanzees or in the fields of genetics and health. far she eloped with her new male. To Kathryn Jeffery, director, SEGC Sthe illegal-bushmeat trade were Loango National spent the past two and a half years gorillas – even if we are saving lives.” Today we are studying the ecological transferred onto a safe island in the Park received undergoing daily forest rehabilitation In the meantime, the FVGP is Fernan-Vaz Lagoon outside Loango enormous press from their gorilla orphanage accom - working hard to raise awareness on GORILLA GENETICS National Park in July in what was the coverage this panied by their keepers on Evengue issues facing gorillas, to encourage first successful transfer. summer with its Island, north of Loango National research that emphasises the needs of MAY HELP PRESERVE This was the second step in a reha - first successful Park. A team of keepers will continue local people and to integrate respon - SOME OF OUR bilitation project that it is hoped will transfer of rescued to monitor their progress from a base sible tourism, as part of a national allow these young gorillas to return gorillas to the wild. camp on their new island home. and international effort to save the CLOSEST RELATIVES entirely to the wild and follows a Above: A male The FVGP is two-fold, comprising a gorilla from extinction in the wild. three-year-long rehab programme to silverback. Right: sanctuary and rehabilitation In addition to its sanctuary and FROM EXTINCTION prepare them for release. The trans - director Nick programme. Its sanctuary provides a rehabilitation programmes, the FVGP determinants of zoonotic disease and fer marks the beginning of the goril - Bachand and home for older gorillas that can has initiated an education campaign the impacts of climate change. SEGC is las’ independence since they have keeper. Below: a never return to the wild as they lack to raise awareness among local chil - affiliated to the University of Stirling now exchanged human-built shelters keeper with one of the critical survival skills usually dren on the importance of great-ape and works closely with WCS and the for a palm-fringed forested islet his young charges taught by their parents in the first six and environmental protection. Zoological Society of London. where they can live safe from the to eight years of life. They live in a On December 5, Hermann But back to the ‘who killed threat of poachers or predators. fenced-off area from which they can Loundou, one of FVGP’s two team Porthos?’ mystery. In our study, one The transfer was supervised by the be discreetly observed as part of a leaders, will travel to Paris to repre - group of gorillas was followed for ten Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project (FVGP) regulated, responsible and educa - sent the FVGP during a one-day years until its elderly silverback director and veterinarian Nick tional experience for local, national gorilla symposium co-ordinated by (Porthos) died after a violent fight Bachand and a team of Gabonese and international tourists. the Muséum national d'Histoire with another male, causing the break - keepers. “We all felt a hint of The IUCN has identified the use of naturelle in Paris and Unesco. down of the group and the disappear - sadness as the gorillas left the reintroduction projects as part of a The FVGP in Gabon is a project of ance of all surviving members (three place where their journey global strategy for the survival of the the Société de Conservation et young males and an adult female). started,” says Nick. “But this world’s endangered great apes. The Développement (SCD) in affiliation They were never traced, leaving burn - was instantly replaced with a Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) with its main ecotourism partner ing questions about the fate of the mountain of pride when we works closely with the FVGP. “We Africa’s Eden. SCD has partnerships female and the identity of the observed some of the goril - have to find ways to restore value to with the Wildlife Conservation attacker. The plot thickened when las starting to build their Africa’s forests, and reintroduction Society, the Max Planck Institute, the three months later, another silverback own nests to sleep places focus on the African Gabonese ministry of forestry and the corpse was discovered; his cause of P

G outside overnight.” wildlife in the African forests,” Gabon’s National Parks Agency death was unknown but skull remains V F / N

E Each of the six says Doug Cress, exec - (ANPN). For more information, please and hair samples were collected and O J L I

V gorillas (three females utive director of visit www.gorillasgabon.com the skull was nicknamed ‘Yorick’. L E

A and three males) vary - PASA. “It’s no good This is where forensic science came C H G C I

Sarah Monaghan E S

M ing in age from two to for any of us to in. When scientists need to study

36 GABO N . WINTER 2009 GABO N . WINTER 2009 37 CONSERVATION

BABES IN THE WOOD PEOPLE-FRIENDLY GORILLAS

EEP I N THE FORESTS of south - intensive stabilisation phase with the Below left: The Howletts Zoo in the UK to Gabon, HABITUATION OF eastern Gabon, a landmark primary aim simply to ensure their remote site near where they will become part of a Drelease programme has success - survival through medical and psycho - the Congo border third group to be reintroduced into GORILLAS COULD fully reintroduced the western logical treatment,” he says. where the PPG the wild. They included five-month- lowland gorilla species to the Batéké Gorillas that survive the initial project is based. old Tiya, the youngest gorilla ever to OFFER TOURISTS A Plateaux National Park, an area period following arrival undertake a Anti-poaching be transferred for reintroduction. The RARE CHANCE TO SEE from which it had been hunted to lengthy preparation to adjust them patrols have also animals were all transported on a extinction half a century ago. to the release site. “It is a complex reduced bushmeat private jet courtesy of English entre - THEM IN THE WILD The post-release survival of both process that includes psychological hunting in this area preneur Richard Branson to Libreville, wild-born and captive-born gorillas here support, social integration, forest (WWF and WCS where they boarded a presidential because its habitat types are diverse (84 and 86 per cent respectively) at the adaptation, behavioural and health support the helicopter bound for the forest camp. with coastal forest and swamps in Projet Protection des Gorilles (PPG) is assessments, and occasional medical national parks The gorillas were accompanied by addition to rainforest. We follow the extremely high thanks to the experi - interventions,” explains Amos. agency anti-poach - Damian Aspinall, son of the late John trail for hours, crawling through ence and skills of the project staff. Two groups have been released ing efforts in most Aspinall, the project founder. “They will dense forest and swimming through Behind the programme is a UK- into the wild at PPG-Gabon in 1998 of the parks). be taken out into the forest each day muddy swamps of razor-sharp grass. based charity, The Aspinall Foundation, and 2004: a total of 29 gorillas, Below right: and in a few years they will be ready Suddenly, we are rewarded with which runs another project in the including 20 wild-borns and nine Damian Aspinall for life in the jungle,” he says. the sweet smell of gorilla odour. We Republic of Congo. “The principal aim captive-borns. There has been one with the three baby Admittedly, this gorilla reintroduc - creep forward, clicking our tongues of the reintroduction programme is to baby born to date within the gorillas born at tion project is a small dent in a big to let the gorillas know we are there re-establish viable, self-sustaining released groups, with most of the Howletts Zoo in the problem with some primatologists and not poachers. The silverback populations of the western lowland release stock only recently reaching UK from where predicting that extinction is a real Mutembeke (meaning ‘big force’) gorilla in the wild, within the former adulthood or still immature. To the they were recently possibility for gorillas in the next few responds with a bark and one of the range of the species,” says its overseas- delight of PPG’s staff, the baby was transferred to decades. In the meantime, however, females hoots to incite him into projects director Amos Courage. discovered in October 2007 and was Gabon to begin the new generation of gorillas here is charging. The gorillas here are principally named Okeli, meaning ‘stream that their adaptation thriving, and a moving and inspiring He comes charging towards us, wild-born young orphans abandoned leads to bigger things’. preparation for example of what can be achieved barking loudly. He stops however by the illegal-bushmeat trade. “Some Following the birth of Okeli, three the wild with sufficient care. about eight metres away and then E T

orphans arrive in terrible physical and young captive-born gorillas were U sits and studies us, checking out how T I T

Sarah Monaghan S

mental conditions and require an flown from The Aspinall Foundation’s N we respond. It takes willpower to I K

C resist running away at his charge but N A L

P we have to show no fear. We stand X A

M quietly, avoiding eye contact. Deciding that we do not pose a WAKE AT 6AM and find it is driz - All in a day’s work: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary threat, he retreats to his group who zling outside my tent in the forest JoJo Head, director Anthropology and Africa’s Eden, is to resume feeding. Iat Loango National Park. I can of the Loango habituate gorillas and chimpanzees Today’s contact is a reminder of smell wood smoke from our trackers’ Great Ape Project, for research and tourism. how much progress we have made. fire. At 7am we organise ourselves accompanied by We are also studying the process of Over time, we have learnt a lot about into two teams, each with a Martha Robbins habituation, knowing from the the habits of the Indegho group. We researcher and three trackers. Each of the Max Planck successful projects with mountain now know their favourite places for team will now follow a separate Institute and two gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda that crossing the swamps and how to group of gorillas, picking up the trails trackers contend international ecotourism could offer monitor the fruiting status of their where we left off last evening. with a river a way of generating funds for conser - favourite trees. We work with Pygmies from Waka crossing in pursuit vation, as well as providing tourists We try to stay near until late in the in central Gabon, using their tracking of a group of with the opportunity to experience day when they make their night expertise gained over centuries in gorillas apes in their natural habitat. In nests. Back at camp, we record the their traditional way of hunting. In addition, we want to understand the data collected as well as assessing the addition to spotting bent stems and behaviour, culture, ecology, health faeces we gather for DNA genetic imprints that we rarely see, our track - status and demography of these identification or dietary intake. ers can see dimples in dried leaf litter species and how these two closely- We still have a way to go before from 50 paces and have an intuitive related apes coexist. this group is fully habituated and do understanding of gorilla movement. After an hour of hiking, we arrive not yet allow tourists to accompany

N Today, I will be following the at the spot where we left the gorillas us because of the risks to them and O I T A

D Indegho (a local word meaning ‘our yesterday and the trackers spread the stress it would cause the gorillas. N U

O friends’) group of gorillas. We have out. Two whistles tell me that one of However, slowly but surely, these F L L

A been following this group of 13 for the trackers has found the trail. We gorillas are revealing the secrets of N I P

S the past two years in the hope that keep talking to a minimum to avoid their lives to us. I A / E F

L they will accept our presence. disturbing wildlife and use bird-like O

R JoJo Head, director of the Loango E The aim of the Loango Great Ape whistles to communicate. Loango V

A Great Ape Project D / Project, a collaboration between the differs from other areas in Gabon G P P

38 GABO N . WINTER 2009 GABO N . WINTER 2009 39