Pregnant 18-year-old Imani went into labor at the San Diego Zoo on Wednesday. When the veterinary staff realized that she was not progressing and the baby gorilla’s health could be at risk, they decided to perform a rare c-section on her. Though the park has done c-sections on other animals, this is the first time they have performed the surgery on a gorilla.
This was Imani’s first pregnancy. She was considered high risk because of her age, which is on the older side for having a first baby and because she only weighs 200 pounds, which is on the low side for a full-grown gorilla.
The Virunga Mountains of Central Africa is the lush habitat of mountain gorillas also known as Virunga Gorillas. The Virunga Mountains in Africa is found at juncture of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, their population has significantly decreased because of the ill-effects of war, murder and violence. There are only 700 or less living in the volcanic slopes of Africa and the Virunga National Park which is the home of about 200 Virunga gorillas.
The Virunga gorillas are now endangered and the place they consider their territory has slowly been wiped out by the wars that took place between the year 1194 during the Rwandan genocide and the ruthless civil war in Congo. Their habitat and way of life has been strongly threatened because of these human-caused dilemmas including the greediness of hunters who hunt gorillas either for meat consumption or for sale to others in exchange for some cold cash.
There are others who carelessly destroy the Virunga gorillas’ lovely and dense forest, cutting down trees just to create charcoal which ironically is becoming a lucrative business, reaching to nearly $30 million worth of profitable business.
The Virunga National Park is home to most of the last surviving kind of Virunga gorillas and efforts had been made to preserve them. Established in 1925, the Virunga National Park used to be named as Albert National Park, the first National Park in Africa and designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The Virunga National Park is is a 7,800 square kilometer park that has been badly damaged by war and constant killings. Because of this, efforts had been made to save the Virunga National Park particularly to provide the Virunga Gorillas a safer environment to live and thrive.
Even when there are rangers and volunteers that guard the park doing their best to monitor and provide locals enough education programs to preserving these endangered Virunga gorrillas, many were still killed along the way due to murder and unrelenting chaos in the area. However, with the best management programs and stringent monitoring, Virunga Gorillas are faring a little bit better now as compared 10 years ago. One can only hope for the best as far as the Virunga Gorillas are concerned. There is always hope despite the uncertainty.
The classic movie, King Kong, which tells the story of a giant gorilla captured in Skull Island and brought back to New York City, created one of the most iconic scenes in cinema history. Even when the movie was remade in 2005, they still included the memorable scene when King Kong climbed up the Empire State building and caused panic. The movie remake raked in a whopping $218,051,260 in the box office, wowing audiences the world over with thrills, insane stunts, and mind-blowing special effects.
Although real life full-grown gorillas aren’t as large as King Kong, they are still much larger and heavier than your average human being. Gorillas are native to the African Forests and have the distinction of being the largest existing genus of primates. Moreover, gorillas are fascinating because of DNA structure, which closely resembles that of human’s by about 95 to 99 percent, depending on the components being counted. Gorillas are also the next closest surviving relative to man, after bonobos and chimpanzees.
Gorillas can live up to 30 to 40 years, but many captive gorillas have lived over 50. They use a series of different barks and grunts with body language as a form of communication. These animals are also very intelligent. Scientists have successfully taught many gorillas a few sign language gestures to successfully communicate with them. In the wild, they are also known to utilize tools, such as branches and twigs, to help them get what they want.
Gorillas are already endangered animals. Many groups are trying to help the gorilla population by interbreeding them or breeding them in captivity. The closest we can really get to these magnificent creatures is by visiting them at the zoo or in nature reserves.
Reports based on a Discovery News feature tell of members of the rarest gorilla species making a rare cameo on video.
Captured via a camera trap positioned to view the Cross River, the short video runs for a few minutes, but its star celebrities’ activities proves to be a great wealth of information for researchers and zoologists.
The video pretty much shows a group of the endangered animals shot in candid real everyday life at the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, with the camera rigged by the Wildlife Conservation Society of the same Gorilla Sanctuary.
In the video, one of the gorillas appears to be missing a limb, a hand, with experts relating the injury to have been poacher trap related. The video is considered rare, given how elusive these animals are, and clamor and attention over its recording has left a number of conservationists and researchers excited.
In these fast paced, highly advanced micro performance driven digital times, recording videos has been considered as a trivial act, achievable with the use of any available camera-equipped mobile phone.
Instant telecommunication and data transfer technologies have also gone beyond older wired standards, further decreasing the wow factor in capturing rare not everyday you see encounters.
The short video featuring the rare gorillas isn’t just a hallmark for researchers and gorilla experts, but stands as a reminder for all, reminding us that though society has trivialized a number of technologies, there are certain events which remain unique and special.
It reminds us that there are still wonders to discover out there, beyond the posts on Facebook walls, beyond the updates on Twitter accounts.
This was Imani’s first pregnancy. She was considered high risk because of her age, which is on the older side for having a first baby and because she only weighs 200 pounds, which is on the low side for a full-grown gorilla.
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