poachers demand up to $40,000 an animal

Poachers demanding $40,000 (£25,350) for one of the animals were caught by park rangers earlier this month in an undercover sting operation.

It was the fourth such incident since April, making this a record year for the poachers trying to feed a growing black market caught with baby gorillas.

Mountain gorillas are critically endangered, with around 790 remaining in the world - about 480 in the Virunga volcanoes conservation area (shared by DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda) and just over 300 in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. Eastern lowland gorillas are more numerous but largely outside protected areas and still in decline.

Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga national park, said: "We are very concerned about a growing market for baby gorillas that is feeding a dangerous trafficking activity in rebel controlled areas of eastern DRC.

"We are powerless to control the international trade in baby gorillas, but our rangers are doing everything they can to stamp it out on the ground." Merode added: "Four baby gorillas seized in less than a year is unusually high … [but] it's only the tip of the iceberg, as we only manage to catch a small proportion of the offenders because the wildlife service is under-resourced in Congo."

An infant gorilla was rescued on 6 October when a team of park rangers went undercover posing as potential buyers in the town of Kirumba, near the western border of the park.

Dressed in civilian clothes, they made contact and agreed a price for the one-and-a-half-year-old male eastern lowland gorilla that poachers were hiding in a small backpack. Rangers arrested the three poachers once they had possession of the gorilla.

Christian Shamavu, the leader of the operation, said: "It's very likely that the mother and other gorillas were killed because it's very difficult to take a baby gorilla from its family. The poachers will never admit to this, though."

Baby eastern lowland gorillas were confiscated from poachers in DR Congo in April and June, and Rwandan police recovered a baby mountain gorilla as poachers attempted to smuggle it over the border in August.

The animals suffer physical anguish during the process. Dr Jan Ramer, a vet with Mountain Gorilla Veterinarian Project (MGVP), partners with Virunga national park, said: "Many of these infants are injured from ropes around their hands, feet or waist, and some are quite ill, which is not surprising as they are generally in close contact with their human captors, extremely stressed, and with very poor nutrition."

But the newest orphan gorilla, named Shamavu after the ranger who rescued him, appears to be in good condition, Ramer added. "He appears to be quite healthy other than some parasites and dry skin."

The market price for infant gorillas can reach $40,000, but officials say they lack the resources or jurisdiction to investigate where the gorillas are headed or who is behind the trafficking.

International experts said they believe the route lies east. Ian Redmond, chairman of the conservation group the Ape Alliance, said: "We think the Middle East is a likely source of demand, wealthy animal collectors and a tradition of giving big gifts to curry favour … and maybe wealthy Russians, but there is little hard evidence.

"What we do know is that just the rumour that someone is looking to buy a baby ape can be enough for penniless hunters to think: 'I could get one of those and sell it for $$$$!' And in eastern DRC, once one is captured it is likely to be smuggled eastwards through either Rwanda or Uganda, the traditional trade routes for all goods in that area."

A report on ape trafficking by Karl Ammann, an investigative film maker, claimed that dozens of gorillas and hundreds and chimpanzees have been taken from Cameroon via Nigeria to Egypt.

Emmanuel de Merode added: "Surveillance is the key, at the borders, in the towns, along the roads. The local community are the best surveillance system, if they are on our side.

"A lot more could be done with respect to international trade, especially in the market countries where there is demand for baby gorillas. There, it's a question of enacting legislation and enforcing. As far as I know, very little has been done that's effective with respect to baby gorilla trafficking."

Wild gorillas seen to use tools

Wild gorillas seen to use tools

What's fascinating is the similarity between what these creatures have done and what we do Thomas Breuer

Gorillas have been seen for the first time using simple tools to perform tasks in the wild, researchers say.http://www.richimag.co.uk/ape/
Scientists observed gorillas in a remote Congolese forest using sticks to test the depth of muddy water and to cross swampy areas.
Wild chimps and orangutans also use tools, suggesting that the origins of tool use may predate the evolutionary split between apes and humans.
Gorillas are endangered, with some populations numbered in the hundreds.
'Valuable insights'
"We've been observing gorillas for 10 years here, and we have two cases of them using detached objects as tools," said Thomas Breuer, from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), who heads the study team in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo.
"In the first case, we had a female crossing a pool; and this female has crossed this pool by using a detached stick and testing the water depth, and trying to use it as a walking stick," he told the BBC.

Gorillas use nature's toolbox In pictures

The second case saw another female gorilla pick up the trunk of a dead shrub and use it to lean on while dredging for food in a swamp. She then placed the trunk down on the swampy ground and used it as a bridge.
"What's fascinating about these observations is the similarity between what these creatures have done, and what we do in the context of crossing a pond," observed Dr Breuer.
"The most astonishing thing is that we have observed them using tools not for obtaining food, but for postural support."
In the family
This discovery makes the gorilla the last of the great apes to be documented using tools in the wild.
Chimpanzees use stone tools to process food, and their close relatives bonobos will use the mashed ends of sticks to soak up liquids.
Orangutans - the only Asian great ape - use branches to forage for food, and leaves to modify their calls.
Though some monkeys and birds also use tools, Thomas Breuer believes that the great apes are special.
"We have now seen tool use in all the great apes in the wild," he said.

The chimp Ai can count and recall numbers, recognise characters

"That now makes us think that it might be the case that tool use has been an ancient trait of all great apes before the human lineage split away." Current scientific orthodoxy holds that the separation between the chimpanzee and human lines came about six million years ago.
Research has shown that in captivity, apes can learn a range of skills including number and character recognition.
They can also learn tool use and transmit their acquired skills to other members of their social group.
The Congo team, drawn from the WCS and the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, believes that the tool traits they have observed in the wild may also be shared and learned across gorilla social groups.
They publish their findings in the online journal Public Library of Science Biology.

700 gorillas left

Rare cooperation to save gorillas

The slaughter of mountain gorillas in 2007 shocked the world

Three countries have come together for the first time, to try to save the mountain gorillas of central Africa. Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda have launched a project to improve their security.
One of the world's most endangered species, they live at the point where the three countries meet.
There are only about 700 mountain gorillas still left in the world and they have been hit by the destruction of the forests - their natural habitat.
The volcanic Virunga mountains that straddle Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the heartland of these great apes.


A census carried out in 2004 estimated that 380 mountain gorillas, more than half of the world's population, lived in the Virunga national park and surrounding region.
More than 300 also live in southwest Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest reserve.
Last July, five gorillas were killed - shot dead execution style - inside the Virunga national park.
More recently, rebel forces loyal to the dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda, took over large areas of the park, forcing out the rangers and leaving the gorillas vulnerable to poachers.

For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction Moses Mapesa, Uganda Wildlife Authority

The BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says the wildlife authorities of all three countries are well aware of how important the gorillas are as they represent an important revenue earner.
Tourists pay $500 each for a permit to track the animals, raising $5m annually for the three countries.
The 10-year conservation project, which was launched in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, is to focus on greater security and ways of discouraging local communities from destroying the region's forests.
It aims to give them a share of the money made from gorilla-trekking permits.
"For the first time, the three countries have decided to protect the great apes which are threatened with extinction and insecurity in the region," Moses Mapesa, the head of the Uganda Wildlife Authority, told a news conference at the launch of the project.
The first four years of the project are being funded by the Dutch government at a cost of $6m.

titus the gorilla

Rwanda mourns most famous gorilla

                     

Titus was said to have overcome many hardships to rise to the top of the pack

Titus - the most famous silverback in Africa known as "The Gorilla King" - has died in Rwanda at the age of 35.

He was the subject of a BBC documentary last year, and was studied by naturalists throughout his life - including US expert Dian Fossey.
Rwandan officials described him as "possibly the most remarkable gorilla ever known", referring to his long life and his rise to dominance in his group.
Titus was one of only about 700 mountain gorillas left in Africa.
The highly endangered animals are found only on the slopes of the Virunga mountains on the borders of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The plight of the mountain gorilla was brought to the attention of the world by Fossey, who lived in the Virunga until her murder in 1985.
"He was born on 24 August 1974 and has been observed closely by researchers throughout his entire life," a statement from the Rwandan national parks office said.
"Tragically, he succumbed to old age on September 14."
The life expectancy of a healthy gorilla is about 40.
The silverback's story was featured last year in a BBC documentary called Titus: The Gorilla King.
He rose to become the dominant male in his group despite losing family members and being born underdeveloped.
"Every gorilla death recorded is not only a great loss, but a major setback to conservation efforts of removing the mountain gorillas off the endangered species list," tourism officials said.
Gorilla tracking is now the mainstay of tourism in Rwanda and Uganda.