Pablo Group Comes Down To Lower Altitudes

After a month of cold temperatures, frequent rains and thick mist on Kimbagira, the 45 gorillas of Pablo group have finally moved down into the bamboo zone.  It was a beautiful day for their arrival into the lower altitudes of the park; the sun shone brightly and the gorillas appeared to relish the warmer weather. Fossey Fund Karisoke researcher Dr. Winnie Eckardt was with the group when they arrived in the bamboo belt at 12:30pm this afternoon, with dominant silverback Cantsbee in the lead. Eckardt reported that the gorillas fanned out, in search of the best patches of bamboo shoots. The youngsters of the group were busy engaging each other in games of chase and other playful activities and the adult gorillas happily feasted on succulent shoots nearby. The scene was a stark contrast from the previous week’s observations - where every gorilla was huddled and shivering in the cold rain, high up on Kimbagira....

Click here to read the rest of the Fossey Fund blog post

Photograph © Stacy Rosenbaum for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Titus Gorillas Sleep Outside of Protected Park

For the first time in the history of the Karisoke Research Center’s monitored mountain gorillas, the Fossey Fund staff has observed an entire gorilla group sleeping outside of Volcanoes National Park...

Click here to read rest of the latest Fossey Fund blog post.

The Bamboo Season

With the onset of Rwanda’s biannual rains, it is time for the bamboo season in Volcanoes National Park, when many of the mountain gorilla groups monitored by the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke™ Research Center make their way down to the “bamboo belt” near the park’s border. The Bwenge, Titus, Ugenda, Kuryama, Ntambara and Urugamba groups have already been observed at lower altitudes in the park, tempted by the prospect of tasty bamboo shoots.

When the groups of gorillas converge on the bamboo zone at the border, we are bound to see two things: an increase in interactions between groups and gorillas leaving their protected forests to venture out into the surrounding farmland....

Click here to read the rest of this Fossey Fund news post