ISIMBA GROUP LOSES DOMINANT SILVERBACK
(Posted 24th December 2013)
A regular contributor from Musanze, formerly known as Ruhengeri, the main town outside the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, has passed on sad news just now.
The gentle giants of the Virunga mountains are not always gentle it seems, as a fight between Getty, the dominant silverback of the Isimba group, was found dead yesterday after what was apparenlty a fight with a stray, perhaps unhabituated silverback.
Already last year did Getty need treatment after getting into a territorial fight with Suswa group silverbacks but had since then of course recovered.
Staff and a veterinarian from Gorilla Doctors, when getting reports from the trackers who normally spend the daylight hours with the gorillas, made their way to the Isimba group but were on arrival told that Getty’s body had been recovered by the park rangers already.
Thanks for the efforts of Gorilla Doctors, even though this time they were unable to save Getty’s life. Visit www.gorilladoctorsblog.org for more information about the work this volunteer group does with the mountain gorillas of the Virungas, how to donate to allow them continue their work and where to find their Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social network sites which provide details on a regular basis about their deployment and the cases they treat.
