Gorilla Doctors
Gorilla Doctors
As part of E-Trip Africa’s efforts to have a positive effect on the environments that we visit, we will make a donation to the Gorilla Doctors for every gorilla permit that we purchase and for each tour that visits Uganda, Rwanda or DRC. The work of the Gorilla Doctors is unparalleled, with a measurable direct effect on the Gorilla Populations, the environment and the communities surrounding these environments.
Gorilla Doctors is dedicated to saving mountain and Grauer's gorillas one gorilla patient at a time. Their international veterinarian team provides hands-on medical care to sick and injured gorillas living in the national parks of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With only 880 mountain gorillas left in the world today, the health and well-being of every individual gorilla is vital to the species’ survival.
In addition to providing mountain gorillas with healthcare, the veterinary team monitors the health of DRC’s Grauer’s, or eastern lowland, gorillas and intervenes to help sick individuals when possible. The Gorilla Doctors also help rescue and treat mountain and Grauer’s gorillas orphaned by poachers.
The Gorilla Doctors healthcare program includes:
• Monitoring the health of mountain gorilla groups to ensure the early detection of disease and injury.
• Staging medical interventions to dart sick animals with antibiotics or anesthetize and treat gorillas suffering from human-induced or life-threatening trauma.
• Rescuing and providing veterinary care to gorillas orphaned by poachers.
• Documenting and studying health trends to better predict disease outbreaks.
• Conducting post mortem examinations on dead gorillas to learn all that we can about the health problems that contributed to their deaths.
• Preserving tissue and fluid samples to be used by researchers investigating primate health issues.
• Providing preventive healthcare to the dedicated park personnel who protect the gorillas, and to the people and their animals that live near gorilla habitat, in order to reduce the risk of inter-species disease transmission.