After more than 24 hours of travel, we’ve arrived in Kigali, Rwanda. We’ll spend the night here and then drive three more hours where our week of work and adventure will truly begin. Kigali is eight hours ahead of Houston, so we’ll be getting on the road Saturday morning just as many of you will be going to bed Friday night.
In the coming days, our team from KPRC 2 and the Houston Zoo will meet with conservation partners, see firsthand what’s being done to save wild animals like gorillas, zebras, and grey crowned cranes, and document the work the Zoo is doing to provide critically important veterinary support.
We’ll share updates on our journey here with you on click2houston.com/conservation. For now, here are eleven things to know that will set the stage for our next eight days.
1. Our first full day in Rwanda will be spent visiting the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund headquarters and meeting with the team there. The morning of our second day, we’ll tour the Gorilla Doctors compound.
2. The creation of the Gorilla Doctors was dreamed up by American gorilla researcher Dian Fossey. In 1985, she was murdered in her cabin just weeks before the first gorilla veterinarian started. The crime went unsolved, but her mission lived on. Gorilla Doctors flourished expanding to all three countries in Africa where mountain gorillas live.
3. The Gorilla Doctors work to care for mountain gorillas and Grauer’s gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The gorillas you’ll see at the Houston Zoo are Western lowland gorillas.
4. The Gorilla Doctors consider the forest their hospital. Whether they are administering antibiotics through a dart gun or sedating a gorilla to remove a snare, they do their work in the field – never removing the animal from its home. That’s why most of our time with the Gorilla Doctors will be at Volcanoes National Park, where we will trek to do a health check on a gorilla family.
5. Gorillas can live upwards of 50 years but reproduce relatively slowly. A female gorilla will only have a baby on average once every four years. On KPRC and the Houston Zoo’s last trip to Rwanda, we captured footage of a gorilla family where a mother had had twins. That’s rare, and even more rare that both would survive. During that trip in 2015, the twins were 4 years old. We plan to ask about that family group when we’re with the Gorilla Doctors.
6. Gorillas and humans share 98% of the same DNA, and the animals can catch the same illnesses as humans. Precautions are taken to protect the gorillas from human viruses, because the animals have not developed the same immunities as people. In 2015, our team saw how children in schools are taught about how their healthy habits protect mountain gorillas. This year, we hope to have time to once again visit a school to see how the Houston Zoo’s partners are inspiring conservation at a young age.
7. Grey crowned cranes are said to be a symbol of wealth and longevity in Rwanda. Habitat loss and illegal trade threaten the beautiful birds. Many birds have been taken in by hotels or wealthy families. The Houston Zoo’s conservation partner Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA) works to keep grey crowned cranes out of those captive situations. They’ve aided in the release of nearly 250 birds – with a about two-thirds of those being released into Akagera National Park, which will we visit while here.
8. Some of the released birds have been fitted with GPS trackers. This allows RWCA to monitor and learn from their movement and distribution once the birds are reintroduced to the wild.
9. According to the RWCA website, nearly 21,000 Rwandan children have pledged to protect the grey crowned cranes. RWCA works in collaboration with Conservation Heritage-Turambe. In 2015, CHT program director Valerie Akuredusenge talked to us about why she has made it her life’s mission to education children about conservation. We’re looking forward to seeing her again on our second full day in Rwanda and learning about how her program has grown.
10. The young people involved in youth environmental clubs through the Houston Zoo’s partners meet weekly and have planted hundreds of indigenous trees that the Grey Crowned Cranes can use to roost. RWCA also has a team of 50 marsh rangers that patrol and protect the Rugezi wetlands. They report illegal activities that could impact the cranes, educate people in the area, and help monitor and count the birds.
11. There are two members of the Houston Zoo’s veterinary team with us on this trip. They are here to help set up a veterinary clinic for wild animals. They’ve carefully packed and brought with multiple pieces of equipment. They will be training veterinary staff in Rwanda on how to use the equipment in the field while we’re here.
Follow the Houston Zoo and KPRC journey back to Rwanda on click2houston.com/conservation.