'Missing' gorillas re-appear
2005-04-29 11:21
Kampala - A group of rare gorillas whose disappearance from a Ugandan reserve last year sparked rumours of primate-napping by neighbouring Rwanda have re-appeared, excited wildlife officials said on Friday.
After a five-month absence, the highly endangered mountain gorillas returned last week to their forest home in south-west Uganda's Mgahinga National Park and with two new additions, Uganda Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa said.
"They went eight, but they have returned 10 with a new baby and another individual," he said.
The so-called "Nyakagezi group" of mountain gorillas, the species made famous by late naturalist Dian Fossey, had trundled out of the park in November, apparently unconcerned by the political border between Uganda and Rwanda that exists on human maps.
Although experts said the gorillas, which are known to roam in a 25km radius in search of food, had likely left on their own volition, their disappearance proved a boon for conspiracy theorists.
Because their presence was a lucrative tourist draw for Uganda there had been a rash of speculation that unscrupulous people in rival Rwanda may have somehow lured them over the frontier to boost visits there.
Mapesa would not say how much money Uganda had lost during the months of their absence, but allowed that numerous would-be gorilla watchers had cancelled trips to Mgahinga because of it.
Tourists pay a whopping $360 per day to track the gorillas and spend one hour watching them in their native habitat where only about 700 are believed to live.
Mountain gorillas are found in the wild only in the forest enclave that straddles Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo although tourists generally avoid the DRC due to insecurity.
Uganda and Rwanda have thus competed for years as a gorilla-watching destination with each country claiming to be the best place to see them.
In Uganda, there is generally a one-year waiting list to see them in Mgahinga and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest but the re-appearance of the Nyakagezi group is unlikely to speed the process in the short-run, Mapesa said.
"Before we allow tourists there, we have to study the group until we are satisfied that it is ready for people in their midst," he said. "It's been some time since they have been in proximity with humans."
Once the wildlife experts have finished their study, the group will become the fifth mountain gorilla family in Uganda that tourists will be allowed to visit. The other four are found in the Bwindi park, officials said.