Gorilla gazette - Issue 8

Welcome to Gorilla gazette!

Postings from the gorilla inhabitants of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, in Western Uganda.

Issue 8: April 2022

Yes, it’s me, Christmas, again! And I have quite a lot to tell you.

First, I don’t know if any of you, who live in the U.K., saw on morning television, or heard  on the radio recently, but the BBC climate editor, Justin Rowlatt, was talking about us, the Mountain Gorillas who live in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Unfortunately he didn’t talk about my Xmas family, as we would have really liked to be on the ‘tele’ and I have a such a beautiful ‘silver back’. Instead he featured the Nshongi family. What he didn’t say was that this family, like us, lives in the Southern sector and was the second family in this sector to be habituated after the Nkuringo family. There were more than 36 members withNshongi feeding range  four Silverbacks in the Nshongi family. Can you imagine three fully grown males, too many for a peaceful gorilla existence! So the family sensibly decided to split up and form four groups – Nshongi, Bweza, Kakono and Mishaya. I don’t think you can will be able to see any of them, but this is where the Nshongi feeding home range is…

I’m very pleased to tell you that we, the Xmas family, have another new addition. Kiiza, whose name means “one who follows twins” gave birth to this little one on 15 May 2022. She was first seen with her one-day-old baby the following day by the early morning team of Ranger Trackers and it is very unusual and not easy for them to get pictures of such a little baby.

Like the Nshongi family we live in the Southern sector, not far away from where the NCENT women live. We are now in the dry season, which means we have look a bit harder to find the nice, tender, lush leaves we like to eat. The women and children in the village, however, have to go to collect water, as the two tank Commat has bought them so far are now dry until the rains come again. Here you can see the children getting water, which is unsafe, from a running stream and small pond.

In his article, Mr Rowlatt was talking about climate change. Even though we live in a huge forest, climate change is important as we need the rainy seasons twice a year. For the women and children in the village, it is even more important as they have to walk two hours to collect water in the dry season as they can only capture some water in the rainy season, given that they don’t have more tanks. Can you imagine what it is like for pregnant women to have to lug heavy jerrycans of water up the mountain, or for the children who have to be kept out of school to help? If the climate changes and there is less rain, they will have to do it even more. 

Rather than send Kiiza a congratulations card on her new arrival, would you please help celebrate the little one’s birth by making a contribution to Commat towards another water tank. If so, please email gorillas@commat.org for further information.