MOUNTAIN GORILLA FAMILY GETS BABIES OVER CHRISTMAS
Information was just received that the Kabirizi and Mapuwa families, habituated groups of mountain gorillas in the Congo DRs Virunga National Park, has had one birth each over the Christmas period or in late December. The Mapuwa group now counts 17 members while the Kabirizi group has grown to 33 members, the largest of the habituated groups of mountain gorillas on the Congolese side of the volcanoes.
The Greater Virunga Transboundary Cooperation, which brings together the three wildlife management bodies, RDB Tourism and Conservation in Rwanda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and their Congolese counterparts ICCN, has over the past years effectively dealt with local and cross border poaching and instituted a range of measures aimed to not only protect the prized animals but create a conducive environment for them to breed. The last tri-partite meeting was in fact held in Kampala / Uganda in October last year and by coincidence was the meeting report and resolutions published a few days ago, as the news of the new births in Congo also arrived. The report is available on request through this correspondent for interested parties, but in the meantime it is a warm welcome to the youngest members of the mountain gorilla community in the border triangle between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
