The first year of life is full of challenges when trying to grow into a strong, healthy gorilla in the wild! The greatest threats to infant mountain gorillas are trauma (e.g. snares, injuries) and illness, and health threats to infants can have population level impact over time¹. In the case of endangered mountain gorillas where there are only an estimated 1,063 remaining, every individual life is essential to the long-term survival of the species.

Gorilla Doctors is the only organization in the world dedicated to providing life-saving veterinary care to mountain and Grauer’s gorillas in the wild. When a gorilla is ill or injured or caught in a snare, Gorilla Doctors intervenes to save our gorilla patient’s life. Just last year Dr. Ricky and the Uganda Wildlife Authority rescued Tulambule, an infant mountain gorilla caught in a snare. It was a harrowing 12-hour intervention that ended with Tulambule being safely reunited with her gorilla family.

Another example of the long-term impact of Gorilla Doctors health monitoring of infants is Iragi, a now adult Grauer’s gorilla who was also caught in a snare as a young gorilla. Thanks to Dr. Eddy and the ICCN team’s quick response, Iragi (which means ‘Lucky’ in Congolese) was released from the snare without injury and just one-year ago had her first baby!

Gorilla Doctors currently monitors the health of a total of 174 infants from ages 0 – 3.5 years-old across Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo. Of this total number, there are 56 who are 1-year-old or younger and we have just launched our first ever fundraiser across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to cover one-month of health monitoring for these 56 babies. Health monitoring, on average, costs $5 per day, per infant so one month of care for just these 56 babies is $8,400 – for all 174 infants it is $26,100. We recognize that this is a challenging time but we hope you will consider a $5 donation to help give these infants grow into strong, healthy adults.

Growing Up Gorilla Social Media Campaign

Total Goal: $8,400

Dates: July 1st – July 17th

Click here to give on Facebook

Create your own personal fundraiser on Facebook and become a Growing Up Gorilla Ambassador

You can give and host fundraisers on Instagram too! Follow us for details.

Share our tweets and help us spread the word!

Not on social media? No problem, you can give your $5 directly on our website

¹Hassell, et al. (2017). American Journal of Primatology 79: e22686

---