Eastern Lowland Gorilla:
Fading fast…This species only occurs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Year of the Gorilla website says it all: The Eastern Lowland Gorillas have been, and still are, severely affected by human activity, particularly since the 1990s when instability in their area of distribution escalated into civil war, and violence, human tragedy and economic disintegration overshadowed gorilla conservation. Law enforcement is usually one of the first casualties of war. Gorillas are hunted more than ever before in war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and their habitat is rapidly being destroyed and degraded by mining, agriculture and charcoal production.
But herein sits a moral dilemma. How do you set up a sustainable society and viable economic structure while at the same time protecting wildlife who live in and around the same resources the human population needs to survive? It is noted that 91% of the human population in the region practice subsistence farming, which requires them to convert the forest into agricultural land. Over 96% of these people rely on firewood, often harvested unsustainably, as their main energy supply for warmth and cooking. Forested parks are for many of them the last remaining source of fuel.
So let us talk about Mountain Gorillas again. Mountain Gorillas to the public are most likely the best known or at least the most seen on cable documentaries. They were made “famous” by Dian Fossey’s studies of the 70’s and 80’s and for some travel enthusiasts, are the easiest to reach if you want to see a gorilla in the wild. Many zoos even lead tours to Rwanda to see gorillas. Our friends at Terra Incognita Ecoturs www.ecotours.com go there a number of times a year. What has saved the Mountain Gorilla in part is that this species has become economically viable and “eco-tourism” to Rwanda and Uganda have become a part of those countries economies. This natural resource has saved itself by becoming a flagship species for the countries it lives within.
You can recycle your unwanted cell phone at the Houston Zoo
Back to Eastern Lowland Gorillas: 1995 population ~15,000-17,000. 2008 population is potentially ~5,000. How to you develop conservation in a country caught in civil unrest? You really do not, or at least do so safely and it is difficult to determine the extent of decline without field surveys in the area. The decline is attributed to the combined effects of the rise in demand for coltan ore and the warfare that engulfed the whole of the Eastern Lowland Gorilla range from the late 1990s onwards; armies, rebels, refugees and miners all lived off the land and consumed bushmeat. Coltan Ore? What is that? Coltan Ore is used in cell phones, laptops, pagers and other electronic devices. I will rant about why you should recycle your cell phone some other time but for now go to http://www.houstonzoo.org/Recycling/ . For now let’s just say that various armed and rebel groups fighting in the DRC are exploiting natural resources to finance themselves. The most important resources are diamonds, copper, cobalt, gold, tin and coltan.
Monday’s blog: Mbeli Bai Gorilla Project, Nouabale Ndoki National Park, Republic of Congo
The Houston Zoo is hosting Dr. Michael Cranfield, Executive Director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project as part of our Call of the Wild Lecture Series September 10th, 20009. Please go to http://www.houstonzoo.org/lectureseries/ for ticket information
For more on Year of the Gorilla, go to http://www.yog2009.org/
*Part 5 of 10 in our membership giveaway. Post a comment on 3 of our mountain gorilla blog before 8/14 to win.
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So cellphones are killing the easter lowland gorillas? Would it be possible to move this population to a safer area? Or take a few gorillas to populate in another area?
All the more reason for us humans to be more responsible and recycle what ever we can. We should take care of this Mother Earth not only for our grandchildren, but for all the furry grandchildren out there!
I miss Mac.
I remember about 10 years ago the wife and I had received a free tour of the Houston Zoo in a silent auction that included going behind the scenes with the director of animal care. Possibly the best tour I’ve ever taken in Houston. Of course, I’m older now and most of the animals I got to see are gone, but I still remember the site of Mac sitting in his enclosure depressed because his TV was broken and he couldn’t watch videos. At the time my wife and I were scraping to get by and it took much or our entertainment budget just to get the tour, we couldn’t afford to buy him a new TV. I always felt a little bad about that and then, years later, felt really bad when I had heard Mac passed on. I believe Mac was a Mountain Gorilla but for some reason this post reminded me of the guy.
The moral of this story: It sucks being poor an unable to help out.
Its unfortunate that this is not only a conservation problem alone. This really stems to a political problem in country, an unstable political system obviously will not watch out for these Gorillas.
I’ll keep this in mind as I recycle some old phones I have at home.
Wow! That lecture is on my 22nd birthday! What an awesome way to spend it!
I’ve started donating my old phones to science labs who use the pieces for robots/wiring demos or whatever. There’s also a great drop box at each Verizon store that goes to victims of domestic abuse. Let’s face it…by the time you’re due for a phone update, your old one is dingy and needs a good home. No one else is willing to shell out the $200 you did two years ago. If we all pitch in, we can solve 2 problems at once!
So sad that in a little over 10 years this population has declined by more than half. I always recycle my old cell phone and will continue to do so because I know it helps out our environment.
This is a great lesson for teaching people how far war/civil-unrest reaches.
Do we know how many zoos in the US have gorillas? Is it possible to bring more to the US and breed them in captavity? Look at the Wolf population in the US; it was endangered for a long time and strict rules helped build back the numbers.
More education on the relationship between politics(war) and how it affects the environment needs to occur.
I learned about the Lowland Gorillas while writing a paper for a college class about the Okapi (also endangered and from the Congo). Not only is the area being deforested and the area is rife with civil war, but there are many poachers in the area that try to capture these animals for different reasons. One reason that I found to be most appalling was that they will capture and kill gorillas just for ONE body part for use in a “specialty dish”.. some cultures believe that various body parts of certain animals when eaten will give the person a particular trait from that animal. Of course this is not true, and the sad part is that the rest of the meat goes wasted and the world is left with one less in the population of an endangered species. I understand that the parks in Congo try their best to destroy traps and capture poachers with what little funds they have, but is there a real way that we can help? I mean, a way where the PARKS get the funds and not the governments there that are fighting?
I wish people would open their eyes and see how their actions can cause devastation…but some people only care about themselves and what they can gain…if only more people were aware of their consequences of habitats of animals!
But I love the recycling efforts that are being offered. I wish it was more widespread- I live in a small town, and we aren’t offered recycling hosts.
Stacy: It’s insane that animals like that are captured and harvested for one body part. It reminds me of the bile from endangered black bears and how said bears are killed just for the fluid in their stomachs. According to an article I read, it’s worth more per ounce than gold.
WOW! To think the electronic devices we use and take for granted everyday can be used to help these gorillas. I can’t wait to round up all of our old phones to donate. Thank you for sharing this and helping all of us do our part for our world.
I have an old cell phone! Now I know just what I’m going to do with it!
I like this post because it shows how politics impacts conservation. As long as there is political instability in the Congo, the situation can only get worse. People ask what they can do to improve the situation in the Congo; one indirect way to help is to try to resolve the instability there, to reduce the pressure on the inhabitants to kill and eat the gorillas (in the absence of other food sources) to survive. And, as this post says, it’s impossible to conduct research there as long as it’s a war zone, so it’s not even possible to fully analyze the problem as long as this instability exists. Ending the strife there AND working with the people to live sustainably on the land would help the gorillas tremendously, even though many people might not associate that with conservation.
I’ll definitely be bringing my cellphone to the zoo the next time I visit!!
I know just where my old cell phone is going!
I didn’t know you could recycle your old phones at the zoo. Even this smal gesture of recycling your old cell phone can help. We can all do our part for conservation.
Maybe education is the answer, or something that can contribute to helping the situation. That includes the people living there, as well as people from around the world. It takes everyone working together to make any kind of impact. This is a global situation!