Gorilla puzzle for rescuers

Wildlife experts are trying to discover if baby gorilla seized earlier this month from Rwandan smugglers is a rare mountain subspecies or the more common lowland type.

The male gorilla, less than a year old, is too young for wildlife experts to physically determine its subspecies, so they will extract a DNA sample and send it to a laboratory in Berlin for analysis, said Rogers Kayihura, spokesman for the National Parks.

Establishing the subspecies is crucial before attempts are made to reintroduce the gorilla to an appropriate foster family in the wild, he said.

Four people were arrested in Goma, an eastern Congolese town on the Rwandan border, when they tried to sell the gorilla to Rwandan wildlife officials for £1,750, other wildlife officials said.

The wildlife officials were working in collaboration with Congolese police after being tipped off that a baby gorilla had been smuggled out of Rwanda, Kayihura said.

“The gorilla was recovered in a house in Goma. Throughout the ordeal, it was kept in a bag. It was found slightly wounded, tired and traumatised,” Kayihura said.

“But now it is doing OK and accepting food. It remains in quarantine while vets examine it for possible infections it may have picked from contacts with humans.”

Gorillas are extremely vulnerable to infections from humans, and their immune systems are not capable of combating such infections.

“In many cases, the capture of a baby gorilla is done after killing its family because members of the family are fiercely protective of their young,” Kayihura said.

Rwanda has deployed rangers and armed troops to protect the estimated 650 rare mountain gorillas roaming its share of a wildlife reserve that straddles Rwanda, Congo and Uganda.

But the Congolese portion of the ecosystem is vulnerable, with small groups of Rwandan rebels based in Congo trying to enter in a bid to sneak into Rwanda.

Another baby gorilla was recovered from smugglers last October, but attempts to reintroduce it to life in the wild failed repeatedly, and it died.

In January, three Rwandan poachers were jailed for four years for killing two mountain gorillas and stealing their baby.