{"id":141261,"date":"2025-05-29T11:23:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141261\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:23:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:23:11","slug":"gorillas-once-caught-by-wildlife-traffickers-are-set-free-in-virunga-national-park-in-historic-reintroduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141261\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorillas once caught by wildlife traffickers are set free in Virunga National Park in historic reintroduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Editor\u2019s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex\u2019s Perpetual Planet Initiative<\/a> has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action.\n<\/p>\n

CNN
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Last October, four female eastern lowland gorillas were airlifted from their home in Kasuhgo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and released 40 miles (64 kilometers) northeast in Virunga National Park.\n <\/p>\n

\n Less than a year later, they have all successfully integrated into a group of wild gorillas, in what is being hailed as the largest translocation of the subspecies ever. Conservationists hope that its success will not only prevent the local extinction of an isolated population, but provide essential knowledge needed to protect the critically endangered apes in the future.\n <\/p>\n

\n The females \u2013 named Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala, and aged between 10 and 21 years old \u2013 were rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as babies and taken to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center <\/a>(GRACE) where they were rehabilitated over a long period of time, learning to forage and socialize as they would in the wild. <\/strong>Deemed ready for release, <\/strong>last fall <\/strong>they were flown to Mount Tshiaberimu \u2013 or \u201cMountain of the Spirits\u201d \u2013 a 1,700-meter (5,577-foot) peak in the northern region of the national park, where they were kept in a fenced enclosure before being released into the wild.\n <\/p>\n

\n The gorilla monitoring team, who expected the transition to take anywhere between several months to several years, were astounded when, in less than two months, they appeared ready to leave the enclosure.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt happened much quicker than we all anticipated,\u201d says Katie Fawcett, executive and science director for GRACE Gorillas, the NGO leading the rewilding process alongside Virunga National Park and local communities.\n <\/p>\n

\n This was partly down to the allure of a handsome wild silverback called Mwasa, who approached the fence of the enclosure day after day, beating his arms on the ground and grunting to catch the females\u2019 attention. It worked: they responded to his calls and even chose to abandon their indoor dens to sleep closer to him along the fence line.\n <\/p>\n

\n Watching on carefully, the monitoring team decided that it was the natural time to let the females join him. \u201cWe really pride ourselves on every decision being gorilla led,\u201d Fawcett tells CNN. \u201cAfter three days of attention directed at the magnificent Mwasa \u2026 the decision was made: \u2018let\u2019s go for it.\u2019 The fence was cut so they could come out.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Since then, to the team\u2019s surprise and delight, the four females have quickly settled into life in the wild, adjusting to the colder climate on the mountain\u2019s steep hills and a new diet of bamboo shoots and other native plants.\n <\/p>\n

\n While rangers continue to monitor the gorillas\u2019 health, collecting non-invasive biological samples and conducting visual assessments, so far the gorillas have shown no clinical signs of stress \u2013 in fact, they are looking \u201camazing,\u201d says Fawcett, with thick, shiny coats and full bellies.\n <\/p>\n

\n The biggest excitement came in the new year, when Mwasa was spotted mating with Ndjingala, a 16-year-old female, for the first time. Since then, the other three have also been seen mating with him, according to Fawcett. As gorillas have a similar gestation period<\/a> to humans, the team are eagerly counting down the days to September, but she says they are cautiously optimistic: \u201cIt\u2019s probably going to take some time as the female gorillas were on contraception while they were in the sanctuary at GRACE.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Mapendo<\/p>\n

\"Lulingu,<\/p>\n

\n A birth would be a huge ray of hope for the whole species. The eastern lowland gorilla, or Grauer\u2019s gorilla, is found in the lowland tropical rainforest of eastern DRC and is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies<\/a> \u2013 all of which <\/strong>are endangered.\n <\/p>\n

\n While there have been successful translocations of western lowland gorillas in the past, eastern gorilla releases have had a very poor survival rate<\/a>, with individuals dying or disappearing within weeks of release, or being so young that they have been unable to survive without a lactating mother.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat\u2019s different about this reintroduction project is not only that it is the largest and we\u2019re putting in four females into this group, but also that the decision was made early on not to just throw a baby back into the group, but to rehabilitate it over a long period of time and make sure the gorilla has the social skills and critical survival skills,\u201d says Fawcett. \u201c(We were) trying to mimic that natural behavior of having adult females join a wild group.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The project was also intended to provide a critical genetic boost to the small and isolated population of eight gorillas living on Mount Tshiaberimu. Previous scientific modelling<\/a> found this population to be non-viable, with some estimating that it would go extinct between 20 and 50 years, unless new females were introduced.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe tiny gorilla population was doomed but could now be saved by this intervention,\u201d Liz Williamson, a professor at the University of Stirling in the UK specializing in the conservation, ecology and behavior of gorillas, who was not part of the project, said in an email. She added that the situation facing Grauer\u2019s gorillas across eastern DRC is \u201cdire,\u201d but the translocation could bring multiple conservation benefits.\n <\/p>\n

\n Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park and a Belgian prince, commended the initiative <\/strong>in a press release: \u201cThis is a huge milestone in efforts to bolster the eastern lowland gorilla population and we are delighted that the gorillas are successfully adapting to the wild.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n However, there are huge challenges working within Virunga National Park, which has been the center of armed conflict<\/a> for decades. Over 200 rangers have been killed in the park since it was created in 1925<\/a>, and the recent resurgence of the M23 rebel group<\/a> has escalated matters, with attacks on rangers<\/a> becoming increasingly common. Mount Tshiaberimu is located within the troubled region.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWorking in this area is not easy,\u201d says Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, DRC director for GRACE Gorillas. \u201cThe main thing strategically is to put the community in the middle of everything we do: we recruit caregivers, we recruit educators who are trained at GRACE \u2026 and they feel that responsibility of taking care of wildlife.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Humans<\/p>\n

\n Brought up in the area himself, he recalls when gorillas were widespread and as a child, he would listen to them calling or beating their chests. \u201cWe grew up in the same habitat, sharing the same resource,\u201d he says. \u201cGorillas are our identity, our totem, they are an important source of pride in this area.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yet, as human populations grow, pressures on gorilla habitat are inevitable, with forest being cleared for agriculture and firewood. During times of conflict, with communities in extreme need, these threats are heightened as some resort to hunting gorillas for their meat.\n <\/p>\n

\n The reintroduction is a huge breakthrough, but it is only the start. \u201cThe real key for gorilla conservation success in this region is forest protection,\u201d says Fawcett. \u201cWe\u2019re super excited by this result and how it can help to inform these critically endangered populations, but we need to stop populations reaching that point.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[728,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-141261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114590869415416480","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}