csc grade 5 and 6 room 17

The Story of the Mountain Gorillas as told by Mike Cranfield

On Monday, we had a visitor to our class, Michael Cranfield, who spoke to us about mountain gorillas. He spoke to us about mountain gorillas and about the mountain gorilla veterinary Project MGVP. (gorilladoctors.org)

Michael Cranfield talked about how the population of mountain gorillas is decreasing and they are endangered. Some of the issues affecting the gorillas are diseases spread by humans, rats and bats, poaching and illegal hunting, and the issue of gorillas being injured by snare traps meant to capture other bush animals such as antelope and dikar. At the end of the month, snares that are collected in the bush by trackers, local residents, and the doctors are burned in a special ceremony.

When adult gorillas die, sometimes their children are left as orphans. Sometimes the orphans are taken care of by other gorillas in the group, but some are all alone and need special care.

He talked about the issue of deforestation. He also talked about how gorillas can get the same diseases as people, and that visitors to the forrest can be a danger to the gorillas if they are sick and get too close to the gorillas or do not wear their masks. We learned that gorillas have flight distance attacks. I thought it was interesting that gorillas would let people get closer and closer over time (a shorter and shorter flight distance). We also learned that gorillas are closely related to humans.

-A