El Memeyi Murangwa
08/08/11
An infant mountain gorilla was saved by the Rwandan Police last night on the 7th day of August 2011. The baby gorilla is in good hand in Kinigi Quarantine Facility in Musanze District (Rwanda). The Facility got a call from the Volcanoes National Park informing them that a gorilla had been confiscated by police in Gisenyi, and that the poachers had been arrested. Right the way a crew went to Gisenyi and met with the chief of police there, and learned that the baby gorilla had been captured in Bukima, a location in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
She is a female infant mountain gorilla with a bad cough, but she is strong, and has been with these people for about 6 days, eating bananas and sugar cane. According to Dr. Jean Felix Kinani a Rwandan Field Wildlife veterinarian, the baby Gorilla is now in the Kinigi Quarantine Facility and is doing well but have a productive cough and a clear nasal discharge. The veterinarian added that the gorilla is now stable and is going through a full examination. Talking by phone to VirungaNews, Dr. Jean Felix Kinani was coming back from the Gisenyi boarder and meet poachers at Gisenyi prison; he was able to get some information about who was involved and meet with partners in conservation and also with a named Innocent from the Virunga National Park (DRC). Investigation continue and services involved agreed that parks staff in Virunga National Park will go to look for the 3 others poachers who operate directly in the park and will go to check if any gorilla are missing from the habituated group and look if at the Bukima and the Gatovu area in the park info a female gorilla was killed. Until now there is no information about how they got the baby gorilla? People involved in the investigation tried to know much about a potential missing mother. Protecting Mountain Gorilla has been the major conservation focus of the Rwandan Government.
© VirungaNews