Gorilla births celebrated

The annual naming ceremony for newly born gorillas in Rwanda took place on 16 June. The event, called Kwitz Izina, attracted an audience of thousands, with senior government officials, including the Rwandan Prime Minister, and leading conservationists present.

Over the last twelve months, nineteen baby gorillas have been born in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, one of the few places on Earth where the endangered species still lives. The new arrivals were given names that include Ijabo, meaning ‘dignity’ and Icyeza, which means ‘beauty’.


A baby gorilla with its mother
at Volcanoes National Park

The naming event is a celebration of the considerable achievements that have been made in protecting the few remaining wild mountain gorillas in Rwanda. The event also provides an opportunity to draw attention to the plight the animals face and to encourage a greater understanding of the species.

The staging of this ceremony is an indication of the importance attached to the protection of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. The huge tourist interest in these creatures has contributed strongly to the impetus for conservation. Fortunately, Rwanda’s tourism authorities have pursued a sensitive approach to allowing access to the gorillas’ habitat, issuing strictly limited daily permits.

This green approach to tourism has been a win-win for everyone involved – the gorillas are protected by determined conservation efforts, the Rwandan people benefit from community investment from a share of the permit proceeds, and guests on holiday get to savour the incredible experience of a close, wild encounter with gorillas.

Hopefully, the coming year will bring cause for a whole new list of names to be dreamt up by next June.

One conservancy's fight to save the rhino

The story of Africa's black and white rhinoceroses is a sobering reminder of how devastating the practices of our own species can be for some of our fellow creatures. Over recent decades rhinos have been ruthlessly and illegally killed for their horns, which are believed by some traditional medicine systems to have therapeutic properties, despite the total absence of scientific evidence for this claim. The global black rhino population, for example, has fallen alarmingly from around 70000 in the late 1960s to 5000 today, a level which makes the species critically endangered.

One programme that is striving to help the black rhino and the southern white rhino is that which is being run at Lewa Downs Conservancy. Situated in northern Kenya, an important region for these species, Lewa is currently home to 65 black and 46 southern white rhinos. The conservation team here are committed to encouraging breeding amongst the population, monitoring the animals’ movements and behaviour, and to provide security from poachers.

Lewa’s conservation initiative has resulted in steady increases of the population under its care, with black rhino levels averaging growth of 10% per year since 2000. There is still a long way to go to increase groups to stable, self-sustaining levels. And the work of conservationists at Lewa and across Kenya and Africa more generally has been undermined by a concerning resurgence of poaching incidents in recent years. Nevertheless, the nine black rhino births which took place at the conservancy last year have been cause for celebration and optimism and are a testament to the concerted efforts its team continues to make in the face of environmental challenges and poaching.

White rhinos grazing

One of the ways in which Lewa Downs funds its conservation work is through fees from tourism. The area is a longstanding favourite for us at Africa House, appearing, for example, in the itinerary for our forthcoming Spring Break Safari. Our guests consistently enjoy the beautiful accommodation and amazing wildlife encounters on offer here. This combination of high-quality safaris with support for conservation for animals such as the iconic rhino truly embodies responsible tourism. Lewa Downs proves that tourism can be good for guests and good for wildlife, making it an organisation with which we are proud to be associated.

Planting programme helps restore vital forest

Last month, the African Wildlife Foundation led a tree-planting exercise in Kenya’s Mau Forest. The project, also involving the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Forest Service and other bodies, saw 25,000 trees planted at Mau in an effort to restore the forest in response to the progressive loss of trees caused through human activities.



Kenya's forest are vitally important
to the wider environment.

Mau, the largest mountain forest in East Africa, is of huge ecological significance to east Africa. As well as being a rich ecosystem in its own right, the forest is a crucial water catchment area. It is the source of several rivers, including the Mara, and also feeds three lakes, Victoria, Natron and Nakuru. These water courses are a vital lifeline for local communities and for a multitude of wildlife. They also play an important role in supporting the region’s tourist industry, with Lake Nakuru and its famous flamingos, for example, attracting huge numbers of visitors.

The persistent decline in Mau Forest’s extent has been caused by some local groups engaging in forest-clearing – a trend which has put into jeopardy the ecosystem’s capacity to provide water for the region. As the number of trees falls, there is less rainfall locally, and the crucial delivery of water downstream diminishes. Deforestation in Mau has already been implicated by some as a contributing factor in recent droughts.

Last month’s tree-planting signals a growing awareness in Kenya of the importance of protecting the country’s forests, not just for their inherent value and for the biodiversity they harbour, but also for their indirect significance to the wider environment. With the Kenyan government recently acknowledging their commitment to addressing the degradation of forested areas and the continuing efforts by environmental groups, it may be hoped that Kenya’s forests will get the protection they deserve.

Twin boy gorilla joy

The new twins with their mother

A new birth in the threatened gorilla population is always good news. But nature lovers were given a double cause for celebration last month when a pair of healthy twins was born to a mountain gorilla in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.

Twin births are highly rare for gorillas, this being only the fifth known occurrence since Rwandan gorillas began to be monitored over 40 years ago. The last case of twin gorilla babies was recorded back in 2004.

These latest twins are a pair of brothers who were born on 3 February to a mother known locally as Kabatwa. They, along with another recently born gorilla, will be named at a national ceremony in Rwanda this June.

The number of mountain gorillas in the wild stands at fewer than 800. The population has been steadily rising thanks to the concerted efforts of conservationists in Rwanda and beyond.