January 10th, 2008
Published by Ben Beck

Editor’s note: Today, Great Ape Trust of Iowa Director of Conservation Dr. Benjamin Beck continues his 10-part blog on his recent trip to Rwanda. Beck, along with Great Ape Trust Founder and Chairman Ted Townsend, Communications Director Al Setka and Peter Clay, a senior orangutan caretaker, were in Rwanda from Nov. 28-Dec. 6 to begin the process to establish the Rwanda National Conservation Project with Earthpark and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy, two other Iowa-based projects supported by Townsend.

We set off to Gishwati on Nov. 29, our first full day in Rwanda. Our hosts were Rose Mukanomeje, director general of the Rwandan Environmental Management Authority, and Frank Rutabingwa, director general of the National Forestry Authority. The mayor of Rutsiro district and the reforestation team met us, and we presented them with solar-powered flashlights and Great Ape Trust hats as gifts. It was a cordial visit. But I could stand at one edge of the forest and see the other side, something that I never could do in any other tropical forest that I had visited. This symbolized the challenge that would be Gishwati. I mumbled something about a tiny fragment to Frank, words that I would later have to eat.

That evening we traveled to Kinigi, the launching point to visit mountain gorillas at Volcanoes National Park. We had the pleasure of staying in Jack Hanna’s spectacular “cottage” overlooking the Virunga volcanoes. Our host was Tony Mudakikwa, who is in charge of veterinary care of animals in all of Rwanda’s national parks. The next morning (Nov. 30) we visited gorilla Group 13, which has 28 members, including a 3-day-old infant. We were briefed and skillfully led by Olivier, a park guide. We had an easy 40-minute walk before we made contact. The gorillas were at the base of the mountains, eating seasonal bamboo shoots, which they relish. We watched these gorillas eat, rest and play for an hour, from a distance of 20 feet.

The silverback male of this group, Agasha, took the group over after the females had been habituated to (gotten used to) tourists. He was unused to such close proximity to people, but his strong desire to stay with “his” females and young accelerated his own habituation. There is much interest these days in cultural traditions in apes, and it struck me that habituation to tourists may be a group tradition, passed from females and older siblings to youngsters. Adults who join a habituated group may not have this tradition, and have to be acculturated.

Ted’s life had been transformed by seeing mountain gorillas in 1996, I had visited them a few times and Peter had worked among them for many years, but the thrill of being with these wonderful animals never wanes. Agasha seemed to recognize Al as the newcomer, and approached within 2 feet (we were unable to retreat to the required 20 feet of spacing) in a peaceful but effective show of dominance. Group 13 was wonderful, the walk was easy, viewing was excellent and the guide was one of the best. We sensed the orchestration by one of our gracious hosts, Rosette Rugamba, head of the Rwanda Office of Tourism and National Parks.

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