Yahoo News 24 Sep 09;
BWINDI IMPENETRABLE FOREST, Uganda (AFP) – Uganda is poised to launch a scheme to allow gorilla lovers short of time or money to visit the endangered apes to become virtual friends with them on the net, officials said.
Thanks to a system of cameras placed in this forest in the extreme south-west of the country, enthusiasts will be able to watch the gorillas feed, charge through the undergrowth and maybe even give birth, Moses Mapesa Wafula, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), told AFP.
The "Friend a Gorilla" project will be launched officially on Saturday in Kampala and cost just one dollar a year for enthusiasts.
The money generated will help with mountain gorilla conservation.
"Because we cannot physically satisfy global demand to track gorillas we have decided to use technology and bring these gorillas into the sitting rooms of people around the globe, by positioning cameras in the wild," Wafula told AFP.
Uganda already has seven groups of gorillas habituated to tourists. An eighth, the Nshongi group, made up of 34 individuals, is to be introduced later Thursday.
The habituated animals account for only 23 percent of Uganda's gorilla population.
"We're being conservative because the most important thing with the gorillas is their own safety. They are vulnerable to diseases, especially airborne diseases," the UWA head said.
There is little chance that internet tracking will supplant the real thing, UWA officials say, as sitting in front of a screen does not give the visitor the adrenalin rush of being charged by a silverback nor the thrill of watching a female play with her baby.
Nor does it give you the breathtaking views from the road up the mountain into the forest.
Uganda has been careful to ensure that local communities around the forest benefit from gorilla trekking, recognising that this is the only way to keep villagers from hunting in the forest or clearing it, two practices that threaten the gorillas' habitat.
In addition to a 20 percent share of national park entry fees, local communities run some of the accommodation around Bwindi and sell some of their crops to the more top-end lodges and tented camps.
In Rushaga village, next to one of the park entrances, villagers remember the days when they would be publicly caned by UWA rangers if they were found setting foot in the forest.
Kamari and his friends, gathered at the village's only bar, are now fully aware of the benefits of gorilla tourism for local communities -- the road linking Rushaga to the nearest town has just been resurfaced.
In 2008, some 600,000 gorilla enthusiasts came to Uganda specifically to see the gorillas, paying 500 dollars each to spend an hour or so tracking the apes through dense -- and often wet and slippery -- forest.
Gorilla tracking does not come cheap, since on top of the permit the tourist has to pay for car hire and accommodation. Gorilla tourism is Uganda's second biggest foreign-currency earner.
Uganda is home to some 340 of the world's estimated 720 highly endangered mountain gorillas. The animals are found only in Bwindi and in the Virunga mountains on the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Endangered Ugandan gorillas join Facebook, MySpace
Godfrey Olukya, Associated Press Yahoo News 26 Sep 09;
KAMPALA, Uganda – He's hairy, his table manners are atrocious, and he wants to be your friend on Facebook.
No, it's not the ex-boyfriend. It's Muhozi, an endangered Ugandan mountain gorilla, who's appearing online as part of a fundraising program the Ugandan Wildlife Authority launched Saturday to help save the species.
Around 340 mountain gorillas — nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide — live in Uganda's lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and 40 more live in another Ugandan reserve. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Congo.
Despite their size — a male silverback can reach over 7 feet (2.1 meters) and weigh 400 pounds (180 kilogram) — the gorillas are threatened by poachers who kill them for meat, farmers and charcoal-burners who encroach on their habitat, and the indiscriminate bullets of rebels on the run. They must be protected by rangers with automatic rifles.
The Wildlife Authority is hoping that fans will befriend a gorilla on Facebook or MySpace or follow it on Twitter in return for a minimum donation of $1. The money will be used to hire extra rangers to protect the gorillas and safeguard their habitat.
In return, gorilla friends will receive regular updates about their chosen gorilla, have their gorilla's picture on their home page and receive gorilla trivia — like the fact that the name is derived from a Greek word, gorillai, meaning "hairy women."
Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lilian Nsubuga said she hoped the program would give people who could not afford to travel to Uganda themselves the chance to feel closer to the animals.
About 10,500 tourists visit Uganda each year to see the gorillas. An entry permit for the park is $500 per person. Last year Uganda earned $600 million through tourism and more than 90 percent of the money was from gorilla tourism.
"Why visit Rome to see ruins or Egypt to see mere piles of stones called pyramids, yet you can go to Bwindi and see your next of kin?" asked Uganda's Minister of Tourism, Kahinda Otafiire, pointing out that gorillas share more than 95 percent of their DNA with humans.
Thomas Slater, the director of the gorilla Web site, said Internet users would be able to befriend any individual from one of seven groups habituated to human contacts.
"You will be able to learn more concerning the particular gorilla, its character, family and relationships," he said.
http://www.friendagorilla.org
