Visiting Uganda to see how Zoo Atlanta is helping save mountain gorillas
BWANJEBE, Uganda — Mark of the Nyakagezi gorilla group captivated our attention for a full hour doing nothing more than lying around and eating a late breakfast. Mark’s adorable, yet-unnamed 3-month-old clung happily to its mother while the infant’s older brother and sister playfully wrestled in the grass.
What sounds like a mundane Monday was actually a once-in-a-lifetime experience: I was one of only eight daily visitors permitted to trek with the mountain gorillas of Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.
Although I was roughly 7,000 miles away from Georgia, Zoo Atlanta’s 30-year status as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International Headquarters makes it one of largest advocates of this delicate, irreplaceable habitat that so few of us see — yet so many of us undeniably impact.
“It’s such a life-changing experience: You can just tell how intelligent they are, you see personalities in their eyes,” said Jodi Carrigan, Zoo Atlanta’s curator of primates. “It’s the longest, shortest hour of your life when you’re with them.”
Zoo Atlanta’s contributions to conservation
Carrigan has trekked with gorillas more than a dozen times across her quarter-century career studying primates. Zoo Atlanta features North America’s largest population of western lowland gorillas — the only gorilla species found in captivity — and has contributed to extensive maternal care, reproductive, geriatric, cognitive and behavioral research for 50-plus years.
“Their days are spent eating, resting and maintaining social bonds,” Carrigan said. “The way you see gorillas act at Zoo Atlanta is exactly how I see them act in the wild.”
Zoo Atlanta’s research complements the field work conducted by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The zoo’s use of photogrammetry, the process of turning images into 3D models to accurately measure objects, is a great example.
“Since you can’t walk up to a gorilla with a measuring tape in the wild, we validated the photogrammetry method at Zoo Atlanta with our gorillas so that the Fossey Fund researchers could use that technique in the field,” Carrigan said.
Another initiative that provides a direct positive impact in the lives of wild gorilla populations is the Gorillas on the Line program. Zoo Atlanta participates in this annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums Safe Gorilla global mobile phone recycling program, which also supports the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. Recycled phones can help reduce the need for mining the rare metal coltan, which is used in the manufacture of cellphones and is found in gorilla habitats.
“Gorilla conservation works, and your admission funds it,” Carrigan said. “When someone visits Zoo Atlanta, they’re supporting the same conservation efforts that protect the gorillas that people trek to see in Rwanda.”
Mountain gorillas ‘not out of danger’ yet
Mountain gorillas were downgraded from a “critically endangered” to “endangered” species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List in 2018.
Tara Stoinski, president, CEO, and chief science officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, calls mountain gorillas “such a rare conservation success story. But they’re not out of danger; they’re conservation dependent.”
Zoo Atlanta’s partnership with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund is critical to the survival of this species found only around the Virunga Mountains range shared by Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Stoinski noted that there were only 250 mountain gorillas in her research area during the 1980s, and the latest census counted approximately 600.
“These are long-lived, slow to reproduce animals, and these populations take an enormous amount of time to recover,” she said. “We can’t do a quick fix or spend two years hoping for the situation to improve; we have to commit in the long term.”
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund formally protects roughly half the gorilla families in Rwanda and supports 12 of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. But while gorilla populations are growing, the habitat itself remains limited.
“They are the gardeners of some of the most important forests on the planet,” Stoinski said. “We want every inch of that habitat to be protected so the gorillas can be moving around and spreading out as population numbers increase.”
That’s why gorilla trekking in neighboring Uganda is just as instrumental in protecting the habitat on the Rwandan and Congolese sides of the Virunga Mountains.
My hosts, Volcanoes Safaris, has facilitated mountain gorilla trekking tours in Rwanda and Uganda for more than 25 years.
Striking a balance with gorilla tourism
Our adventure to meet the Nyakagezi gorilla group atop the muddy slopes of Mount Muhabura was accompanied by porters, park rangers, and gorilla trackers, some of whom were once poachers. Gorilla tourism jobs like these provide an honest income and deter illegal activity within Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, which is surprisingly accessible by foot from my rustic accommodations at Mount Gahinga Lodge — the original of five Volcanoes Safaris primate-trekking accommodations.
Founder Praveen Moman helped pioneer gorilla ecotourism and made Volcanoes Safaris a platinum-level founding member of the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund when it opened in 2022.
“Sensitive and controlled gorilla tourism has been central to their survival,” Moman said. “If there is no tourism, the gorillas are unlikely to survive; if there is too much tourism, the pressure could threaten their survival.”
Moman insists that this balance can only be achieved through a collaborative effort between governments, conservation organizations, habitat-adjacent communities, travelers and tourism companies.
“We must get it right so the gorillas are still there for future generations,” he said.
Making a difference across continents
Under a canopy of mosquito netting, I wrote my field notes as the red embers in my fireplace struggled to fight the night’s rainy chill. Though my setting resembled the dynamic researcher’s own cabin, I’m no Dian Fossey, and Volcanoes Safaris doesn’t sell the idea that I could be. What it does promise, however, is that a suburban dad can make a difference in the fight to save mountain gorillas with a muddy, yet manageable, walk in the park.
But, perhaps most crucially, preserving the fate of Mark and every other mountain gorilla does not require a visit to the Virungas.
Hundreds of thousands of Atlanta’s residents have already helped turn the tide on gorilla conservation over the last half-century without ever leaving the city thanks to Zoo Atlanta and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
“I hope Zoo Atlanta visitors realize that gorilla conservation works,” Jodi Carrigan said, “and they can make a difference for these animals who can’t stand up for themselves.”
