How Uganda’s Mountain Gorillas Survived Covid-19.
There are two subpopulations of mountain gorillas that are located around the Virunga Massif, which is bordered by Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There is only one nation in the southwestern boundary region that has both subpopulations inside its boundaries, and that country is Uganda.
In order to encourage tourism and study, around sixty percent of Uganda’s mountain gorillas have become used to the presence of humans. This brings the gorillas closer to people on a regular basis. It is important to note that gorillas are vulnerable to human illnesses, such as viruses that cause deadly respiratory diseases such as COVID-19.
Mountain gorillas, like all other great apes, share 98% of the genetic DNA with humans which indicates that they are genetically connected to us as a species. There are presently no cases of COVID-19 infections in mountain gorillas; nonetheless, Uganda has taken quick action to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission from humans to gorillas out of concern for the possible spread of the virus.
In this section, we will try to explain how the mountain gorillas of Uganda managed to survive. The steps taken by the government and conservation organizations in order to protect mountain gorillas from the risk of contracting the Covid-19 illness.
It is impossible to overstate the severity of the risk that the COVID-19 epidemic presented to the endangered mountain gorillas, despite the fact that there are no words that can adequately depict the human agony and economic devastation that the pandemic wrought.
Over fifty percent of the mountain gorillas who are still alive on the planet have become used to people. As a result of their daily proximity to humans, there is a significant possibility that the pandemic will be transmitted to those who live in the forest.
Furthermore, the gorilla forests that are classified as highly protected are bordered by the greatest human population density in Africa. This creates an environment that is perfect for the COVID-19 virus to spread to the mountain gorillas.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority, in conjunction with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), and Gorilla Doctors, used all of these data as a basis for their reaction to the danger that the COVID-19 epidemic poses to the conservation of mountain gorillas.
All of them worked together to put into effect preventative measures that were mainly aimed at the human-gorilla interaction in the administration of protected areas.
Preventative measures in the vicinity of gorillas
In the end, mountain gorillas are a successful conservation effort since the bulk of the gorilla population, which accounts for around sixty percent of the total, has become used to human contact in order to promote tourism. There is no other primate species that is found in the wild that has such a big proportion of the overall population coming into close contact with humans on a daily basis or more.
In spite of the fact that gorilla tourism may make it possible to successfully execute conservation measures, it also presents challenges to the conservation of primates. Most importantly, it is widely established that mountain gorillas have in the past succumbed to human infections at locations where mountain gorillas and humans come into touch with one another. Respiratory infections caused by viruses may sometimes result in subsequent bacterial infections that are deadly.
As a result of the realization that mountain gorillas may be susceptible to infectious illnesses that are transmitted by humans, conservationists have been pushed to follow best practices in order to stop the pandemic from spreading into the gorilla woods.
A face mask is required to be worn by visitors, and they must maintain a distance of ten meters (32 feet) from the mountain gorillas. Before escorting guests inside the park, guides do temperature checks and disinfection of both the shoes and the hands of the guests arriving.
However, the best practices did not become operational until the issue was investigated and a contingency plan was developed. The goal of this strategy was to avoid any direct interaction between gorillas and humans (for example, visitors touching gorillas) and to reduce indirect contact with gorillas to the greatest degree feasible.
Gorilla tourism will be put on hold in order to formulate preventative recommendations.
On March 26, the Uganda Wildlife Authority decided to shut all of the country’s national parks as a precautionary measure against the pandemic danger confronting wild animals. During the process of preparing a backup plan for reopening, the University of Washington (UWA) put into action the strategy to safeguard staff, tourists, and animals.
Gorilla tourism is a key source of money for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, which is responsible for the operations of the organization. For the villages that are located in close proximity to the gorilla parks, it is a vital source of options for making a living.
As soon as the Ugandan government decided to put a stop to tourist operations, the number of park employees was reduced so that only a select few could continue to monitor the well-being and safety of the gorillas on a regular basis.
Daily temperature checks and self-assessments of indications of COVID-19 were to be performed by park workers, as they were trained to do. As the ability of laboratories throughout the nation to do diagnostic testing increased, the authorities in charge of protected areas took the initiative to conduct routine screenings of park employees.
In Bwindi National Park, for instance, rangers and trackers were subjected to COVID-19 testing before to reporting for rotational duty. The movement of people to and from their homes and communities was restricted, and only those persons who had not tested positive were assigned to ranger patrol positions for a period of fourteen days.
The spread of COVID-19 was seen in the majority of the towns and villages that were located in close proximity to mountain gorilla parks when the lockdown was in effect.
Despite the fact that the authorities in charge of the protected area had the best of intentions and made great attempts to screen park staff for COVID-19, gorilla specialists were concerned that there was an extremely high potential that a person who tested positive for COVID-19 would come into contact with gorillas. It may also become difficult, if not impossible, to contain the epidemic inside the mountain gorilla zone.
The activities that took place in the villages that were located in close proximity to the national parks in Uganda came to a standstill for an even longer amount of time after they were opened. This was due to the fact that Uganda had suspended and closed the parks for over nine months.
During that time period, several establishments such as lodges, camps, and hotels were shut down, which resulted in the jobless members of the community. In order to provide for their families, a handful of them resorted to engaging in criminal activities inside the park.
Over the course of the first three months of Uganda’s tourist shutdown, the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s patrol activities gathered more than twice as many snares as are typically discovered in wildlife-protected regions around the country. Including Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which is home to about half of the world’s mountain gorilla population, which is believed to number 1,063.
The lack of tourism that occurred in Bwindi during the COVID-19 shutdown was a significant factor that led to the death of a dominant male gorilla of the species. A member of the community who was hungry and weak was responsible for the death of the lead silverback of the Nkuringo gorilla group on June 1, 2020. The individual was hunting duiker and bush pigs with the purpose of consuming them and selling them at the local market.
Despite the fact that gorillas are not consumed in Uganda, they are often caught in traps that were designed to catch other animals. As a result of the cry that the bush pig let out after being speared by the poacher, the silverback gorilla charged the poacher in order to defend his family.
The poacher then proceeded to knife and kill the gorilla, alleging that it was acting in self-defense at the time. The poacher was given a sentence of eleven years in prison, which is the harshest punishment that has ever been handed down to a person in Uganda for the crime of murdering wild animals.
Although the punitive sentencing was meant to discourage other members of the community, it was anticipated that similar instances would occur among members of the community who were in a desperate situation since there were no food sources available because tourism had been suspended. In the time since Rafiki’s passing, thankfully, no other gorilla has been afflicted with the same destiny.
To facilitate the resumption of tourist operations, the Ugandan government, acting via the Uganda Wildlife Authority and in conjunction with other tourism stakeholders, established stringent operational protocols.
The operating methods of the public health system.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority, with the assistance of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP), established recommendations in 1993 to reduce the risk of disease transmission between humans and gorillas.
These guidelines were taken into consideration when tourism started. In accordance with these regulations, visitors were not permitted to approach the gorillas if they were exhibiting symptoms of sickness, should keep a distance of seven meters, and should turn aside in order to cough or sneeze.
As a result of the epidemic, the viewing distance between humans and gorillas increased to a distance of ten meters (32 inches). Masks are required to be worn by all visitors, rangers, and medical personnel in order to reduce the risk of respiratory infections being transmitted to gorillas. In addition to this, they are required to conduct a screening for symptoms, sterilize, and maintain a certain social distance.
Conservation groups such as the Center for Tropical and Public Health (CTPH), the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), Gorilla Doctors, the Max Planck Institute, and Bwindi Community Hospital collaborated to provide training to park workers in order to reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections traveling from humans to gorillas.
A total of four hundred park employees were instructed to wear protective face masks, to practice proper hand hygiene, and to maintain an excellent viewing distance of ten meters. The rangers were provided with hand sanitizers and face masks made of an additional layer of fabric.
Before entering the forest, each individual was required to wash their hands, disinfect their footwear, and enable obligatory temperature tests. Additionally, they were required to allow temperature checks to be performed on them.
The same training was provided to one hundred nineteen community volunteers who were referred to as the Gorilla Guardians. Their purpose was to assist in herding mountain gorillas from community land to the park location.
There are a few days in each month when the activity takes place among habituated gorilla groups in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Additionally, the Gorilla Guardians were provided with regular loth face masks, hand sanitizers, liquid soap, and infrared thermometers that do not need touch.
At both the family and village level, behavior change communication was carried out by trained Village Health and Conservation Teams. The fact that they assist communities in adhering to public health operational norms in order to reduce the risk of COVID-19 has led to an increase in the number of handwashing facilities that people have installed in their houses out of fear of catching the illness.
Together with the University of Washington and local health offices, the Uganda Virus Research Institute, the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and other collaborators, the Connecticut Department of Public Health is conducting COVID-19 tests on gorillas and individuals who interact with gorillas both within and outside of the park.
These operations have been generously financed by a large number of foreign donors, including the foreign Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Save the Species, the European Union, the British High Commission, and private benefactors.
The mountain gorillas of Uganda have been able to survive the Covid-19 outbreak because to all of the measures described above.
Community projects that promote sustainability
In addition, the lack of revenue from tourism constituted a danger to the existence of mountain gorillas. This is because the economic motivation for people to preserve mountain gorillas by avoiding accessing their environment in order to hunt infected individuals was eliminated. Furthermore, there was a decrease in the cash generated by tourists, which is essential for maintaining park activities, such as anti-poaching patrols.
By noting the fact that the advantages of minimizing illicit entrances into gorilla habitats exceeded the danger of infecting primates with COVID-19, the government decided to resume primate tourism at the end of September 2020.
This decision was made in response to the circumstance described above. It was also noticed that immunizations and rigorous adherence to standard operating procedures (which were addressed previously) have greatly decreased the danger of contracting the Covid-19 virus.
Residents in the surrounding areas were filled with optimism when Uganda’s gorilla parks were reopened in October of 2020. It helped to reduce the amount of poaching that occurred and provided cash that was used to assist law enforcement activities to protect gorillas and other animals.
Today, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across the world have come together to support a number of community sustainability projects, such as the ‘Ready to Grow’ Program at CTPH and Gorilla Conservation Coffee.
Every single person who travels to Uganda for the purpose of gorilla trekking makes a contribution, in some form or another, to a community initiative that is designed to assist the people who live in the areas around gorilla parks.
Either by paying for accommodation that employs a local or by eating a meal consisting of fresh vegetables at a lodge that is located close to a gorilla park, it is possible to do so. Within the realm of community sustainability projects, gorilla conservation stands out as one of the most effective programs globally. It is possible that this is the single most important factor that contributed to the survival of Uganda’s mountain gorillas during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Gorilla Trekking Safari in Uganda Katland Safaris Ltd. provides you with the chance to encounter mountain gorillas in Uganda, contribute to primate conservation projects, and assist impoverished people in coping with life outside of national gorilla parks.
We tailor our gorilla trekking excursions to meet your specific financial requirements. These services include taking care of your lodging, transportation, food, and the logistics of the government organization. If you would want to discuss your gorilla trekking safari, please write us an email us about the matter. We will assist you in planning and provide you with a free rapid quotation.
