On the afternoon of Thursday June 5, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park trackers reported that blackback mountain gorilla Karureeta of Katwe group had a wire snare around his left wrist.  The snare was affecting his mobility, and he was exhibiting signs of discomfort.

Despite Karureeta’s name translating to “chaos initiator” (he likes to stir up trouble in the group), Dr. Ricky performed one of the fastest and most efficient snare rescue interventions in recent history…

Dr. Ricky and the intervention team trekked into the forest early the morning of June 6, arriving at the group by 9:00AM. Katwe is a group of six gorillas and all six were high in the trees feeding quite contentedly on fruit. The intervention team waited three hours for the gorillas to come down. During this time, Dr. Ricky observed Karureeta pulling on the snare with his hands and mouth in multiple unsuccessful attempts to remove the wire.

When the gorillas finally came down, they walked right over to another group of trees and climbed back up! By the time Karureeta came down, it was nearing 3:00PM.

Dr. Ricky was ready with the anesthesia and Karureeta was fully immobilized within 10 minutes after darting. Dr. Ricky cut the wire, cleaned the wound, provided medication (antibiotics and anti-inflammatories) and collected biological samples – all within 15 minutes!

Dr. Ricky reversed the anesthesia and Karureeta was awake and catching back up with his group within 30 minutes of his recovery from the anesthesia. In the weeks that followed, trackers and Dr. Ricky kept a close eye on Karureeta. He has made a full recovery and continues to initiate chaos within the group whenever the two silverbacks let him get away with it!

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