#gorilla doctors

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

Gorilla Doctors is an organization that works to protect the world's most endangered gorillas from disease, injury, and poaching. While mountain gorillas and Grauer's eastern lowland gorillas are the most vulnerable to extinction with populations in the small thousands, they are also the only (non-human) great apes whose populations are increasing! Besides doing amazing conservation work and research, Gorilla Doctors also is the best source for adorable photos of wild gorillas.

[dvmpicsphotography]

Mountain gorilla, stripping bark for a midday meal. This particular one is part of the Agashya group, mainly hanging around Mt Sabyinyo, Volcanoes National Park in western/northwestern Rwanda.

If you can, support the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project - gorilladoctors.org , besides their work in directly supporting gorilla health and population wellness they also do a ton of work in supporting the local communities (education, clean water, etc).

[dvmpicsphotography]

I try not to go too long between mountain gorilla posts. They’re amazing animals, and it was the trip of a life time to get to go visit them. I haven’t put up a black and white shot of any of them as yet, but I really love how the eyes look on this one.

Agashya group, Mt Sabyinyo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. As always, if you have it in your budget to support conservation, please consider the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (gorilladoctors.org). Not only do they take care of the animals, they do a lot of amazing work in the local community in supporting schools and infrastructure to improve people’s lives.

[dvmpicsphotography]

Mountain gorillas are vegetarian, and love stripping the bark from small trees for a meal. This creates conflict with the local people in their home range, so as part of conservation efforts the governments in those countries will repay people for the damage so they don’t try to chase away or harm the gorillas.

Support gorilla conservation via the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project: gorilladoctors.org

[dvmpicsphotography]

Mountain gorillas are some of the most endangered animals on the planet. Rwanda, DRC and Uganda have made them the face of conservation efforts and they’re rebounding, but still precarious.

These are from the Agashya Group (named for the present silverback - permanent name is Group 13) which lives largely on Mount Sabyinyo in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. 

If anyone is looking for a place to donate, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project could always use more resources - they do amazing work when the gorillas are sick or injured, and support a lot of local charities (education, clean water initiatives, etc).

gorilladoctors.org

[dvmpicsphotography]

Dunno how many posts it’s been, but whatever the number it has been too long since the last baby mountain gorilla photo. I am incredibly lucky to have seen these animals in the wild, and even more so that the group we visited had so many young.

This was the Agashya group, Mt Sabyinyo, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. They’re named for the current boss silverback, though each group also has a number for consistency (dating back to the Dian Fossey days). There are specific groups habituated to humans to allow for tourism (which pays for a lot of conservation), and others that are kept as contact free as possible. Rangers do track the non-habituated groups as well, so they can inform the Gorilla Doctors (www.gorilladoctors.org) if anyone is sick or injured enough to need intervention.

As always, a plug for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project - they do amazing work in Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC which includes supporting a lot of initiatives for the betterment of the local people as well (infrastructure, education, healthcare).

[ms-cellanies]

Gorilla Doctors is dedicated to saving the mountain and eastern lowland (Grauer’s) gorilla species one gorilla patient at a time. Our international veterinary team provides hands-on medical care to ill and injured mountain and Grauer’s gorillas living in the national parks of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). With only 1,004 mountain …

I was watching Andrea Mitchell’s MSNBC show and she had a segment with Harry Smith.  Harry had gone to Rwanda to find out more about the program to help save the mountain gorillas.  This organization, Gorilla Doctors, in particular has helped bring about a 50% increase in the number of mountain gorillas in Rwanda.  Groups are working with the locals to expand the size of the national park and help the locals earn a better living.  Tourism is the primary source of the funding for this project.  Visit the website above to find out more about their work.  With the threat of catastrophic extinctions across the planet due mostly to climate change, I thought something uplifting could serve as both a salve and a way we can help as individuals to protect the precious wildlife on the planet all of us call home.

[fugitive-rabbit]

Gorilla Doctors is dedicated to saving the mountain and eastern lowland (Grauer’s) gorilla species one gorilla patient at a time. The proceeds of the sale of this painting were donated to support Gorilla Doctors’ mission. 

---

Kayin from the Buffalo Zoo Watercolor Portrait

2018

Check out my other artwork as prints, pillows, stickers, phone cases and more on RebBubble here. Or on Etsy here. 

Get a behind the scenes look at my process for this and other works for $1 on Patreon here.