Gorilla gazette - Issue 4

Welcome to Gorilla gazette!

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

Issue no 4: December 2021

Now, I know what you, Ladies, are saying: “About time too”. Yes, you’re now hearing from a female gorilla, instead of a silverback male. 

My name is Nyampazi. It means ‘Ants’ which is not very flattering, I know, but I just love feeding on them, and they give me protein. Hence my name. Rukiza is the dominant silverback in our family, which includes two other silverbacks, Rwigyi and Kasigazi. He is my husband. Our family name is Kahungye, which means ‘Rafia’, called after the area in the Kahungye Valley, where we were first located in the southern part of the Bwindi National Impenetrable Forest. It’s full of rafia trees.

In this picture our son, who is 18 months old, is standing on Kasigazi. I’m in the background keeping an eye on what is going on. By the way, our son doesn’t yet have a name. He will get one once he has developed some characteristic behaviour or after a personality who is prominent in the forest or conservation. And, in case you are wondering most silverbacks have more than one wife. There is only one dominant silverback at a time in a family, and you might be a bit curious as to what happens when one silverback meets another. Take a look, but you have to be quick!

Some gorillas, like Kakukojo (Issues 1 and 2) live in the northern sector and others, like  Busingye  (Issue 3) and us, live in the southern sector. I know it’s confusing, so I asked Commat to show you a map. 

You can see Nkuringo, where NCENT (the ladies’ group) members live, which is in the southern sector and the main entrance to Bwindi at Buhoma, which is in the northern sector. It doesn’t look that far away and Buhoma can be seen from a hill near Nkuringo. 

But, it takes two to three hours for the rangers and local people to walk through the forest, and it's a 5-6 hour vehicle ride by road as you have to go the long way round.  Currently there is no road along what is the Uganda/Democratic Republic of Congo border. We gorillas keep in own territories. We keep moving all the time, making new nests to rest in at night, although the babies sleep with their mothers. The only time we stay in one place for more than four days is when there are some of our favourite fruits and we just want to eat them all up, or when a new baby has been born or a baby gorilla has died.

The great excitement in Nkuringo is that Stephen has been given a new phone by Commat Health Initiatives Uganda (CHI), Commat’s Ugandan affiliate. It means that he will be able to take more and better pictures of the members of NCENT. Of course, it also means that he can take more and better pictures of us gorillas. So, we will have to make sure that we look as good as possible when our photos are taken, particularly us ladies. When we groom, the juveniles take care of each other and the females groom the babies, the silverbacks as well as each other. 

Well, we know that the holiday season is coming. We don’t have fir trees for celebrations. What we do have are Giant Tree Ferns, which are among the oldest and ancient trees remaining in the world.

I know that you can’t put presents for our NCENT friends under this fern, but if you would like to, please send a donation to help buy a third water tank for Nkuringo. Some money has already been collected but they need more available water than they have at present in their two tanks in the dry season. As you can see in this picture, the COVID vaccine has arrived in Nkuringo, and it meant that they ran of water in the tanks earlier than usual in the last dry season. All details about making a donation, and contacting Commat, are at the bottom of this issue of the Gorilla Gazette. 

We all send Seasons Greetings, as do our friends in Nkuringo, and hope that post-COVID-19, you will come to visit us at Bwindi. We love having visitors and we even on occasions come out to meet you, though we are not meant to!

We all send Seasons Greetings and hope that post-COVID-19, you will come to visit us at Bwindi. We love having visitors and we even on occasions come out to meet you, though we are not meant to!

 

The NCENT members, who are seen here standing outside their craft shop, and all the people in Nkuringo will also give you a very warm welcome. 

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