Gorillas!

Woke up this morning at 5:15 to see the gorillas.

After an hour car ride to the national park office, we signed in and were put in a group with a dual American/Rwandan citizen who lives in Richmond. We were assigned our two rangers, who told us about the family of gorillas which we were going to see as well as about the mountain gorillas in general.

Volcanoes National Park is right up against the borders with the DRC and Uganda. Both the DRC and Uganda have national parks on the other side of these borders. I use the term "national park" very loosely with the DRC, as it is really just uncontrolled wilderness. Together these parks encompase the entire Vertugas Mountains, which are a small chain of volcanic mountains, including three active ones. The last major eruption was in 2002 and destroyed most of the congolesse city of Goma, which we saw in the distance two days ago. The Vertugas Mountains are the only home to the mountain gorillas (which are their own species from lowland gorillas, which are much more common). When the gorillas were first documented in 1902 there were over 5,000. Today only 308 survive. The jungle of the Vertugas is also famous for its golden monkeys. Elephants, water buffalo, and wild boars also live there, among many species of bird, amphibians, insect, and reptiles.

The group we met is called the Hirwa Group and is home to 12 gorillas: one adult male (called a silverback), six adult females, and five children. This group is only two years old. It was formed when its silverback challenged the alpha silverback of his group, lost, and was thus kicked out of his group and forced to form his own. He then went aroun challenging weaker silverbacks and taking their territory and mates until he had formed his own group. Most groups have multiple silverbacks, but since this one is so young, it only has one.

We left the park office with our two rangers and piled into the back of a Land Cruiser for a half hour off-road ride. When we reached the point that our car couldn't go any further, we were met by two Rwandan soldiers armed with AK-47s and a "porter", whom I later discovered was a ranger in training. From here we hiked about 30 minutes across the fields until we arrived at a low stone wall with dense jungle on the other side. This was the park boundry. We climbed the wall and began to trek through the jungle, one ranger, one soldier and the "porter" in front, and the other ranger and soldier in back. We were told that the soldiers were there to protect both us and the gorillas from the congolesse poachers who often cross into the Rwandan park.

After about 45 minutes of climbing through the dense jungle of mostly bamboo, we met two other soldiers and another ranger. We were told hat the gorillas were just ahead. Apparently there is always at least one soldier and at least one ranger following the gorillas 24/7 to protect them from poachers. We asked them how often they run into poachers and were told that there haven't been any attacks this year but that it had been very bad last fall.

We found the large silverback with his five children eating and napping in a "clearing" about five minutes from where we met the guards. We spent over half an hour watching them, the kids coming within three feet of us as they wrestled and rolled around in the brush. Then the mothers came back, and all the gorillas got up to go, and we followed them as they tramped through the jungle, stopping the eat and rest very often. It was amazing to watch the giant silverback move. It was huge, probably around 450 pounds and it just tramped through everything. It was really, really fast. I got over 50 mintes of video with the gorillas.

After our 60 minutes were up, we trekked back down the mountain and across the feilds to the car, and drove back to the pakr office, and then back to Ruhengeri.

What an experiecne!

I think it's also worth mentioning that the military presence in this part of the country is significant. While we had seen trucks of police with shotguns and rifles in Kigali and Ruhengeri, it was very different here. In addition to the soldiers we saw at the park, we also saw multiple trucks full of soldiers with AK-47s, as well as a group of 15 or so combing a field. This is due to the fact that the FDLR remains very active in the part of the DRC right across the border. As unnerving as it is to see dozens of people walking around with assault rifles, it actually makes one feel very safe.

Until next time,
Drew