Gorilla Journal Journal of Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe No. 58, June 2019 End in Sight for The Itombwe Saving Cross Secrets of the Sarambwe Nature Reserve River Gorillas Western Lowland Conflict Faces Many through Radio Gorilla Social Threats Drama Behaviour BERGGORILLA & REGENWALD DIREKTHILFE Authors of this Issue engagement processes in conser va- CONTENTS tion practice. He has been intimately D. R. Congo 3 Dr. Ekwoge Abwe is a postdoctoral involved in issues relating to spatial End in Sight for the Conflict over research fellow with San Diego Zoo prioritisation and land-use planning the Sarambwe Nature Reserve 3 Global and manager of the Ebo Forest while working with both conservation Virunga National Park Reopens 3 Research Project in Cameroon. NGOs and environmental consultancies The Itombwe Nature Reserve Dr. Magdalena Bermejo, Odzala-Lossi in the UK. He is currently interning with Faces Many Threats 5 Conservation/Research Program, GRASP in Nairobi. Ivory Trade in Uganda 6 SPAC Foundation gGmbH, Berlin, Ger- Germán Illera, Odzala-Lossi Conser- Cross River 7 many, and Department of Evolu tionary va tion/Research Program, SPAC Saving Cross River Gorillas in Biology, Ecology and Environ mental Foundation, Berlin. Nigeria through Radio Drama 7 Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona. Dr. Inaoyom Imong is the Director of Gorillas 9 Rubén Bernardo-Madrid, Depart- the Cross River Landscape Project of GRASP & IUCN Great Apes Status ments of Integrative Ecology and Con- WCS Nigeria. He has been involved Report 2018: Summary 9 servation Biology, Estación Biológica in Cross River gorilla research and Gorillas on the IUCN Red List of de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville. conservation since 2004. He studied Threatened Species 11 Hillary Chukwu holds a Bachelor the ecology and conservation of Cross Secrets of Western Low land Gorilla of Arts degree in Theatre Arts and a River gorillas for his PhD. Highly Social Behaviour Revealed 13 Diploma in Mass Com munication. He Jean Claude Kyungu Kasolene First Video Footage of the Elusive is the Cross River Gorilla Campaign headed the Tayna Gorilla Reserve Ebo Gorillas in Cameroon 15 Manager for WCS Nigeria and has and the Walikale Community Gorilla Pre-Congress Lecture and been working to raise awareness about Re serve and was Project Manager Meeting of Gorilla Enthusiasts, the gorillas through radio since 2015. for the Tshiaberimu Gorilla Project Kenya 2018 16 Dr. John E. Cooper and Margaret for The Gorilla Organization. In 2008 Reading 18 E. Cooper are a husband and wife he became conservator for the Mt. Berggorilla & Regenwald team. They have travelled widely and Tshiaberimu sector of the Virunga Na- Direkthilfe 20 lectured together in many countries. tional Park and in 2017 the Director of Finances 20 They have spent many years living in the Itombwe Reserve. Impressions from the 2019 Members' the tropics, especially Africa, including Dr. Pascaline J. Le Gouar, CNRS, Meeting in Frankfurt Zoo 19 a period in Rwanda working with the Univ. Rennes, EcoBio (Ecosystèmes, mountain gorillas. Bio diversité, Evolution). Stéphane Dréano, Univ. Rennes, Dr. Angela Meder studied the behav- CNRS, IGDR (Institut de génétique et iour and development of captive low- développement de Rennes). land gorillas for 10 years. Since 1992 Gorilla Journal 58, June 2019 Dr. Giovanni Forcina, De partments of she has been part of the Board of Editor: Dr. Angela Meder Integrative Ecology and Conservation Directors of Berggorilla & Regenwald Augustenstr. 122, 70197 Stuttgart, Biology, Estación Bio lógica de Doñana, Direkthilfe. Germany and De part ment of Biological Sciences, Dr. Nelly Ménard, CNRS, Univ. de E-mail [email protected] National University of Singapore. Rennes, EcoBio. Translation and Proofreading: Ann George Lee Harris is a budding Daniel M. Mfossa is the Clubs des DeVoy, Bettina and Andrew Grieser eco logist with an interest in wildlife- Amis des Gorilles coordinator for the Johns, Callum McCabe human interactions and stakeholder Ebo Forest Research Project. He is Cover: MGMC recording in the forest cur rently a doctoral student at ERAIFT, Photo: WCS Nigeria Organization Address: University of Kinshasa. His re search Berggorilla & Regenwald Direkthilfe focuses on the ecology and con ser va- Bank Account: c/o Burkhard Broecker tion status of gorillas in the Ebo forest. IBAN DE06 3625 0000 0353 3443 15 Juedenweg 3 Wilhelm Möller worked alongside his BIC SPMHDE3E 33161 Hoevelhof, Germany brother Peter on the redevelopment Switzerland: E-mail [email protected] of the Queen Elizabeth National Park IBAN CH90 0900 0000 4046 1685 7 Website: and was employed there as Education BIC POFICHBEXXX http://www.berggorilla.org Warden and Deputy Chief Warden. 2 Gorilla Journal 58, June 2019 D. R. CONGO Following this he spent 7 years as the End in Sight for the three blocks in a south to north direc- first Director of the Wildlife Centre in tion. The southern block, which bor- Entebbe. Conflict over the ders the BINP, includes intact primary Guillem Molina-Vacas, Odzala-Lossi Sarambwe Nature forest; however, about half of the cen- Program, SPAC Foundation, Berlin, Reserve tral block has been encroached, while and De part ment of Evolutionary Bio- almost all of the northern part has been logy, Eco logy and Environmental The Sarambwe Nature Reserve is well encroached. Gorillas and the largest Sciences, Uni versitat de Barcelona. known for its location on the border groups of animals frequently range in Dr. Bethan Morgan is Head of the between the Democratic Republic of the the first two parts. The third block, lo- Central Africa Program at San Diego Congo and Uganda, and its contiguity cated north of the Sarambwe ranger Zoo Global, and Principal Investigator with Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable post, consists of fallow fields regularly of the Ebo Forest Research Project in National Park (BINP). The reserve cultivated by Ugandans under the pro- Cameroon. covers an area of nearly 900 ha and tection of their army. This area contains Malenoh Ndimbe is a wildlife con- is full of animals. Among them are 6 a few forest islands where red-tailed ser vation biologist working for the species of primates: mountain gorilla monkeys, baboons and some bush Zoological Society of London, Cam- (Gorilla beringei beringei), chimpanzee pigs occur. eroon Programme. (Pan troglodytes), baboon (Papio anu­ Until 1998, before the ICCN (Con- Dr. Johannes Refisch leads the sec- bis), black-and-white colobus (Co lo­ golese Institute for Nature Conserva- re tariat for the Great Apes Survival bus guereza), blue monkey (Cerco­ tion) began to manage this reserve, Partnership (GRASP). He was co- pithecus mitis) and red-tailed monkey the boundaries between the Con- director of the Tai Monkey Project in (Cercopithecus ascanius). go and Uganda were well marked by Cote d’Ivoire. In East Africa he worked Based on the level of encroach- cairns. However, starting in that year, as a programme manager for the IGCP ment, the reserve can be divided into the cairns and their concrete founda- in 2005 before joining GRASP in 2006. Eloy Revilla, Departments of In tegra- tive Ecology and Conservation Biology, Virunga National Park Reopens Estación Biológica de Doñana, Seville. Prof. José Domingo Rodríguez-Tei- After being closed last year due to security fears the Virunga National jeiro, Department of Evolutionary Park has now reopened. “We have taken enough time to be sure of an Bio logy, Ecology and Environmental improvement of security for visitors,” the park’s director, Emmanuel de Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona. Merode, was quoted by Reuters as saying. The park was reopened to Claude Sikubwabo Kiyengo con- tourists on 15 February 2019. duct ed a gorilla survey in the Maiko A deteriorating security situation caused Africa’s oldest national park to Park, worked for the ICCN, for the close in June 2018. Five rangers and a driver were killed in an attack in the IUCN program PPP and for the office Central Sector of Virunga in April. In the following month, two British tour- of IUCN in Central Africa. He was chief ists and their Congolese driver were kidnapped by armed gunmen while conservator of the Parc National des travelling through the park. A ranger accompanying the group was severely Virunga, central sector, coordinator of wounded during the attack and later succumbed to her injuries. The Britons the NGO VONA, the PACEBCo expert and their driver were released unharmed three days later. for conservation in the Virunga region. The park authorities have initially reopened only the most stable regions Since 2008 he has been our assistant. of the park to allow tourists access to the areas inhabited by the mountain Dominique Vallet, CNRS, Univ. de gorillas and to the crater area of Mount Nyiragongo. The 7,800 km2 national Rennes, EcoBio. park is regarded as one of the world’s most dangerous: armed groups still Prof. Carles Vilà, Departments of control much of the territory in and around the park. More than 175 rangers Integrative Ecology and Conservation have been killed while protecting the park since its creation in 1925, with Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, the most recent death occurring within only a month of the park’s reopening. Seville. Since tourism initiatives were relaunched in 2014 the park has attracted Dr. Liz Williamson is the IUCN Red over 17,000 visitors. The proceeds from tourism now make up more than List Authority Coordinator for great 20 % of the park’s US$ 9 million annual operating budget. apes and a Senior Honorary Research Summary of several articles by Callum McCabe Fellow at the University of Stirling. 3 Gorilla Journal 58, June 2019 D. R. CONGO As nothing of value was found, the dig- D. R. CONGO UGANDA gers left again, abandoning their work. It was not until a few years after these Sarambwe north block events that Ugandan nationals started false gradually encroaching into the reserve, border eventually occupying about one third of Rusura central its area.