Today I’d like to tell you about the daily experience of field assistants like myself monitoring the Mountain Gorillas of the Kyagurilo group, which is the best known group in Bwindi thanks to the many years of research that the Max Planck Institute has carried out.
ITFC arranges this daily activity; a group of four field assistants and one ranger is sent out for a period of seven days to do the monitoring. If Kyagurilo is near Ruhija, we go home after the day’s work, but usually they are deep in the forest and then we set up a camp for a few nights, near a water source. As you have read in earlier blogs, Bwindi has very steep slopes, and following these closely related animal friends is tire some, but also interesting!
A team of assistants has a leader (as I have been), a tracker, one responsible for collecting fecal samples and a camp keeper/cook. Usually the MPI assistant is with us, and at times a researcher collecting his or her own data on the Kyagurilo gorillas. I imagine you would like to know what a day with gorillas looks like?
At 7:00 am, the day begins with a breakfast of sweet tea, ‘posho’ (maize flour mingled with boiled water) and bean sauce mixed with cabbage. We set off by 8:00am and bring a snack of roasted groundnuts, ‘mandazis’ (locally baked buns) and a bottle of water, as the day involves a lot of walking up and down.
We first walk back to where we left the gorillas the previous day. From there we all look for signs where the gorillas have moved; broken or pushed aside plants, dung, foot marks etc. That will lead us to the nests, where they have slept. Each evening before sunset, gorillas make nests for the night; on the ground, using branches and leaves (they like hill tops and ridges and avoid valleys). When we reach the nests, we take GPS readings, count the number of nests and check the gorilla dung for mucus, blood and diarrhea. You can tell the Silver back’s night nest from the white hairs he often leaves behind, and the dung may tell you which nest the adult females with infants used, and which ones the juveniles.
After the nests, we again follow the signs to reach the group itself. The distance and time varies; it depends how far they have gone to find good food and on how difficult the vegetation is to pass through, creeping under bushes and regularly rolling down! When we reach the gorillas, the tracker and one assistant will stay behind. Data collection is done by the leader and the researcher (or assistants) and lasts for a maximum of four hours. All along, we must keep a distance of at least 7 meters, to reduce the risk of disease transmission to the gorillas. We identify all the individuals, describe what they do and who is involved in social activities. Part of the time they will be in one place, eating or resting, but then they may move on and all we can do is follow them. When it rains, the gorillas take shelter like we do and wait for the rain to stop, so there isn’t much data to record. However, we stay with them till the four hours are over.
When the day’s work is done, we all go back to the camp, have a lunch of Irish potatoes with beans, bathe and wash our clothes. We may also rest or read a book, collect fire wood and in the evening eat a supper of posho with beans. After supper, we sit near the fire to keep warm and talk till around 9:00 pm, when we all go to our tents to sleep.
You may think that spending such a long time with Mountain Gorillas every day must be very good. And I agree: I do enjoy observing them so closely and I know them well now. But the work is challenging too; passing through and cutting the thick and sometimes thorny vegetation is not easy and we do not want to lose the feeding marks. Despite the challenges, however, everyone is doing well and I promise to continue keeping that spirit.