2020-04-01 Smithsonian Magazine

34 SMITHSONIAN | April 2020

GU

ILB

ER

T^ G

AT

ES

Working the soil

near Volcanoes

National Park in

Rwanda. Gorilla

tourism has

been a boon to

local farmers

who sell prod-

ucts to lodges

and outfi tters.

One is the Virunga Mountain Range, including the

Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park in DRC,

Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Mgahinga

Gorilla National Park in Uganda. The other habi-

tat is located in the Bwindi Impenetrable National

Park in Uganda and contiguous Sarambwe Nature

Reserve in DRC. Both locations, once heavily wood-

ed, are now surrounded by intense agriculture and

dense human populations.

The mountain gorilla rebound is impressive in the

light of the animal’s unhurried reproductive biology.

Male gorillas reach adulthood at 12 to 15 years, and

each social group of 5 to 40 individuals is led by a

dominant silverback, a mature male, which lives up

to 35 years. Females reach sexual maturity at 8 to 10

years. Gestation is typically 8.5 months and a new-

born is a mere four pounds. A baby nurses for two to

four years. A female gives birth to one baby every four

to six years. For these reasons—delayed maturity,

long gestation, predominantly singleton births and

long intervals between births—mountain gorilla pop-

ulations increase slowly. (By comparison, a female

lion has one to six cubs after a four-month gestation

and full maturity requires only three to four years.)

One key to the gorilla population increase, says

Behm Masozera, is “long-term, high-level political

support.” In 2015, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda signed

the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration ,

a treaty to foster conservation and develop tourism,

including antipoaching eff orts, habitat protection

and wildlife surveys. “There is serious political will

in all three countries,” says Masozera, and govern-

ments as well as NGOs such as the World Wildlife

Fund are also working together.

Of course, gorillas don’t care about legal agreements

and national borders. “One troop has migrated from

the DRC to Rwanda,” says Andrew Seguya, executive

secretary of the Greater Virunga Transboundary Col-

laboration. “Another troop has been moving back and

forth across the border. The goal of the treaty was to

create one landscape where all wildlife can fi nd a

home that is not limited by political boundaries. That

the gorillas have responded so quickly is a refl ection of

the success of the treaty.”

But high-level diplomacy isn’t the sole reason for

success, or maybe even the main reason, Seguya

10 MI.

RWANDA

UGANDA

DEMOCRATIC

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

RANGE OF THE

MOUNTAIN GORILLA

Bwindi

Impenetrable

National Park

Sarambwe

Nature Reserve

Volcanoes

National Park

Virunga

National

Park

Mgahinga Gorilla

National Park

AREA OF

DETAIL