Partners in Conservation
Learn about the Zoo’s financial commitment to holistic conservation efforts in Central Africa.
Imagine a World with a Thriving Population of Wild Eastern Gorillas.
Gorilla Doctors is an international team of wildlife veterinarians in Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who provide life-saving veterinary care to endangered mountain and critically endangered Grauer’s gorillas in the wild.
This groundbreaking project is establishing a permanent facility for Gorilla Doctors in the DRC, at the entrance to Virunga National Park, the oldest park in Africa and the only park that is home to both mountain and Grauer’s gorillas. This project will enable Gorilla Doctors to achieve its mission more easily and successfully in the DRC.
Why This Project is Important
- Gorilla Doctors is the only organization in the world providing life-saving veterinary care to eastern gorillas. Treating ‘one gorilla at a time’ has contributed to one of the greatest wildlife conservation success stories of a critically endangered species – mountain gorillas numbers have more than doubled since Gorilla Doctors first began in 1986.
- Approximately one-third of the world’s remaining 1,063 mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) live in Virunga National Park. The life-saving work of Gorilla Doctors is essential to their long-term conservation.
- When a gorilla is ill or injured, Gorilla Doctors veterinarians administer clinical care – in the forest – to improve the individual’s chance for a full recovery. For a long-lived, slowly reproducing species, every single life they save has a significant impact on the species.
The Columbus Zoo and Partners In Conservation (PIC) have already contributed significantly to the recovery of mountain gorillas! Gorilla Doctors has benefited from annual operational grants from PIC that have provided substantial support for the salaries and activities of veterinarians in all three range countries of the eastern gorilla for decades. As well, the Columbus Zoo has provided zoological medicine training opportunities for Gorilla Doctors staff at the Zoo and The Wilds.
How You Can Help
“Moving to Virunga National Park and building a new base of operations will transform Gorilla Doctors’ ability to provide consistent health monitoring as well as respond to gorilla health emergencies. Given the long history of civil conflict in my country, we are often not able to safely travel the long road between our current facility and the park. Not only will The Columbus Zoo’s commitment help keep gorillas healthy, it will also help keep the Gorilla Doctors team safe and healthy.”
~ Eddy Kambale Syaluha, DVM, Head Veterinarian, DR Congo
Your support of this great mission means everything to the Gorilla Doctors team.
