Regional gorilla census starts
Kampala.
A census to ascertain the number of endangered mountain gorillas in three neighbouring countries of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo has started.
The venture, which started last week in Virunga National Game Park in DRC, is aimed at ascertaining whether mountain gorilla numbers are increasing or not.
Mr Pontius Ezuma, the supervisor of the 331-square kilometre Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, said last week regional governments are working together owing to the fact that they all share gorillas that keep moving freely in the neighboring parks.
Mr Ezuma said a new method of counting the gorillas, which live communally, is being used and the surveyors will gather faecal matter and test their DNA as opposed to head counting.
“Direct counting sometimes does not give you accurate results but we now test the DNA of the faecal matter we find on the gorilla nests,” Mr Ezuma said last week. He was meeting officials of the National Environment Management Authority, who are jointly working with the United Nations Development Programme to gather data that will help to identify financial gaps needed to conserve ecosystems in the country, under the project Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN).
Mr David Agenya, a guide in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, explained that gorillas build nests either on the ground or in trees where they sleep in the evening.
In the 2011 census, there were 880 mountain gorillas in the three countries with Uganda having 480 of them, and for tourism, they brings in over Shs19 billion annually in foreign exchange earnings.
Mr Francis Sabino Ogwal, the coordinator for the BIOFIN project, said although Bwindi forest brings in a lot of revenue, it is hard to ascertain how much is needed to conserve it.
