ABOUT MGVP
For nearly 20 years, veterinarians have been helping mountain gorillas survive by providing them with life-saving veterinary care for human-caused or life-threatening illnesses and injuries. The project began as one veterinarian; now it has grown into an entire team. With teams of experienced personnel, The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) veterinarians track ailing gorillas - observing and treating them when needed - inside their native habitat.
The mountain gorillas are the only great apes whose numbers are actually growing. Although this species remains endangered, their numbers have grown from 248 to over 360 individuals in the Virunga Massif in Rwanda alone. The total number of mountain gorillas is estimated to be 700-750 individuals.
Without the MGVP, mountain gorillas might not exist today. Still, these animals remain highly endangered due to threats from war, poaching, habitat destruction and human disease. Their numbers remain critically low with no fall back breeding population in sanctuaries or zoos.
IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT MOUNTAIN GORILLAS
MGVP vets intervene - either darting with medicine or darting to anesthetize and treat - with the wild mountain gorillas very rarely, usually only a few times each year. This is done only when the problem is life threatening, such as pneumonia, or human-induced, such as by a poacher's snare.
Mountain gorillas are susceptible to the "childhood" diseases of people, as well as most other infections. But they are a wild population and thus not vaccinated. If there is an outbreak of measles or flu in the local community of people living near the gorilla park, it could spread to the gorillas. Some serious diseases cannot be vaccinated against even if it were feasible, such as TB, strep pneumonia, and Ebola. MGVP monitors the gorillas in order to detect an outbreak situation early; the project has a network of experts around the world ready to offer their expertise and advice about the best course of action.
Types of gorillas in captivity:
Western Lowland - primarily found in zoos; once common across West Africa (Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, CAF)
Cross River (Cameroon/Nigeria border) - rarely known or seen and not captive
Eastern Lowland or Grauer's (DRC only) - a few in European zoos and 6 orphans in captivity cared for by MGVP in partnership with others
Mountain Gorillas (about 350 in Virungas of Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda; other 350 in Uganda Bwindi) - none in captivity except 4 orphans being prepared for release by MGVP in partnership with others. This is the reason for the MGVP as every individual in this small population matters.
Main threats to all wild gorilla species are the same:
Habitat loss
Bushmeat trade
Susceptibility to human diseases
Ebola could devastate mountain gorilla populations though it has never been diagnosed in the region where these gorilla live. It is uniformly fatal in people and animals and has wiped out entire families of Western Lowland gorillas in such countries as Gabon. It would likely have the same outcome in Mountain gorillas, which is another reason that the world's 700 mountain gorillas must be protected inside parks away from villages of people, and why the bushmeat trade (the source of Ebola infection is people eating infected wildlife) must be stopped.
