13 - Clinical medicine, preventive health care and research on mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes region

Summary

Introduction

Modern conservation efforts are associated with the use of multidisciplinary approaches to resolve biological and socioeconomic issues. Such conservation efforts include veterinary medicine. However, veterinary participation from inception to completion on conservation projects is frequently far belowits potential (Karesh & Cook, 1995). The fact that veterinarians are trained and actively involved with population, environmental, and epidemiological approaches to medical management of domestic and captive wildlife is often overlooked in wild populations.

Since its discovery, the mountain gorilla (Gorilla gorilla beringei) has been under many pressures, including habitat encroachment, direct poaching, and trauma from snares set for duiker and bushbuck. Recently, direct and indirect consequences of war, as well as increasing levels of ecotourism (70% of the gorilla population is habituated to humans) with their potential for the introduction of human pathogens to the gorillas, have emerged as significant threats. The intrusion of poachers, soldiers, and domestic animals in fragmented patches facilitates the influx of new pathogens. These factors, combined with the limited area available to the animals, have reduced the ability of wild gorillas to avoid contact with humans. The situation will require increasing veterinary input to help secure the future of the mountain gorillas.

Disease management becomes even more important in light of the small size of the mountain gorilla population. With less than 620 animals in two separate populations, the survival of individual gorillas, especially females, becomes a priority, not only to minimize the risk of loss of the entire population in one catastrophic event but also for the maintenance of genetic diversity (Hill, 1999).