Dear Furless Friends,

Since most people can’t make it to the jungles of Africa, we are pretending the jungles are in Austin, Texas. Keep your eyes open on January 21, 2012, when hundreds of people dressed as mountain gorillas will run through the streets of downtown Austin. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund is hosting the 2nd Annual Austin Gorilla Run, a way for all of us to keep Dian Fossey’s dream alive.

Our story

Veterinarians in action removing a snare from a young female gorilla in Rwanda.

In 1985, Dian Fossey was murdered. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund (MGCF) took the initiative to keep her dream alive. When MGCF took over the project, there were only 248 mountain gorillas left in the WORLD. Because of the projects that MGCF oversees, there are now 723 in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mountain gorillas live only in Africa. These animals do not survive in captivity; therefore, they’ll never be seen in any zoo.

Mountain gorillas are one of our closest relatives, sharing 98.6% of our DNA. This makes them a close link to mankind, and we are trying to help keep these animals from extinction. MGCF introduced veterinary medicine in 1986 through a project called Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The local governments are convinced that this project saved the gorillas from extinction during the war in the mid-90′s.

Dr. John Bosco Nizeyi teaching dung and urine sample collection to a couple new students.

MGCF developed a veterinary education department in central Africa’s largest university, called Makerere University. This program trains local Ugandans and Rwandans to be veterinarians. Their first task after graduating is to protect mountain gorillas. Afterward, they expand to other wildlife in Uganda and Rwanda. But the current facility at the university has outgrown itself. MGCF needs support in raising funds to build an expansion, which will provide new lecture halls and a wildlife museum to conserve gorilla remains for continuing study. In 1986 MGCF was the first organization in the world to build an on-location veterinary center for the protection of endangered animals. Since then, twenty expatriate veterinarians have served in these countries. Now locals are well enough trained to take over and protect their own wildlife. This is a great thing for central Africa!

How We Can Help

Your $99 registration directly benefits the mountain gorillas. In addition, we suggest that each of you gorillas raise a minimum of $250. The process is easy: just log in to the events website here. After submitting your donation, list the person who you are supporting in the run. If you don’t know anyone in the run, no problem–write your own name.

In difficult economic times your support is very important to the gorillas. Please help in any way you can. Thanks so much from all the gorillas.

Fundraising Plan in Pictures

The Volcano Veterinary Center started in 1986, a tiny clinic established by the Morris Animal Foundation at the request of the late anthropologist, Dr. Dian Fossey. For 18 years, Dr. Fossey studied the mountain gorillas’ behavior, social interaction, and environment in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. Her research showed that the number of mountain gorillas was rapidly declining–-much of the decline due to humans. By the mid-1980s, only 248 known mountain gorillas remained in the world. Dr. Fossey quickly changed her emphasis from mountain gorilla behavior to preservation. Largely due to human influence within the park, this tiny population was collapsing. The culprits: respiratory illnesses and life-threatening injuries caused by traps and snares. At that time, health care was not available to the mountain gorillas.

In 1985 Dr. Fossey met with wildlife enthusiast Ruth Morris Keesling, whose father was Dr. Mark Morris, founder of the Morris Animal Foundation. Dr. Fossey requested funding for a veterinary program. Ms. Keesling responded with the idea of a veterinary clinic. Sadly, Dr. Fossey’s death followed this request. Fortunately, the idea did not stop there. The Foundation worked with the Rwandan government to craft a health-care policy that would protect the mountain gorillas. It built a veterinary center and hired a veterinarian, whose job was to provide medical care to gorillas that sustained human-caused illnesses or injuries.

A Prime Animal Killer. . .

Snares are set to catch either deer or dyker as a food source. Hunters dig a hole and lay around it rope or a wire noose. The other end is tied to a bent over bamboo pole that acts as a spring. Though locals do not hunt them, the gorillas get caught in these traps.

As an example of a human-induced injury, snares cause deep lacerations, which often lead to gangrene and even death if the snare is not removed.

In 1986 Dr. Jim Foster was the first veterinarian to go to Rwanda and work for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, which Ruth Morris Keesling and the Morris Animal Foundation funded. The project was very basic and in great need of supplies.

Dr. Foster’s mission was to observe the gorillas and their surroundings as a first step toward crafting a proposal for a veterinary program. He spent countless hours with the gorillas and submitted plans to Ms. Keesling detailing medical and equipment needs.

Through generous donations the program was started, and Dr. Foster could continue protecting the gorillas from human diseases, snares, and poaching.

At Makerere University we have created the Wildlife Animal Resources Management (WARM) Department. MGCF received its wildlife curriculum from the University of California at Davis and gave it to WARM. WARM took two years to assess what material from western medicine would be applicable to African medicine. WARM now has its own building for its professors and a laboratory. WARM teaches locals how to become qualified in wildlife health management for the protection of gorillas as well as other wildlife in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The department has addressed numerous health related problems and published ecological research on ecological, including investigations of gorilla health threats posed by Capillaria hepatic worms; Sarcoptic mange mites; enteric protozoa, such as Cryptosporidiosis; and bacterial infections, as well as the potential for the gorillas to acquire drug resistant strains of such bacteria. So many local Ugandan, Rwandan, Tanzanian, Kenyan, and Congolese want to be educated in this department that it cannot accommodate them all.

Over the years, this department has become so popular with locals who seek training in wildlife health management that the current structure has outgrown itself.

* Class rooms are overcrowded.
* Supplies are limited.
* Medical equipment is in high demand.
* Currently, all samples that are collected from necropsies need to be sent off to Germany to be analyzed. By the time the samples are diagnosed and the full report is back to the WARM Department, more animals have died.

The laboratory is overcrowded with equipment and studentsand there is no room for storage and counter space for microscopes and incubators.

These students all have a great passion for wildlife, not only in Uganda but all over the continent of Africa. We are a firm believer that education is the answer to the survival of the mountain gorilla and continued research is needed for cures that always confront the wildlife and threaten their existence. Right now the outbreak of the Ebola virus in central Congo has led to a terrifying situation. The virus moves at a fast rate. If its current path continues, the virus will go through the area where the mountain gorillas live. We must find a vaccine to stop this or else the gorillas are gone.

MGCF is working with the Makerere University to construct a larger educational facility. The students want it, the university wants it, and MGCF is committed to complete it for the good of all the wildlife of Africa. MGCF, through the efforts of Gorilla Runs, is trying to raise the much needed funds. When it is built it will be the largest veterinary research facility on the continent of Africa.