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| Apollo
was the leader of a group of 22 gorillas. Some of the gorillas
included in his group were females like Artemis, Maya and the
adolescent Aphrodite. Others like Ulysses and Prometheus were
males who might take over the leadership of the group. In 1991,
Dr. Magdalena Bermejo and her cinematographer husband, German
Illera started doing research in the forest where Apollo and
his family lived. They were the first team to habituate western
lowland gorillas to human presence. Apollo’s group got
used to people being around and we began to learn about Western
Lowland Gorillas for the first time. |
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Then in November of 2002, one of the trackers noticed that the size
of the group had changed. The trackers noticed that the gorillas
were stressed and Prospere described the females as crying. They
began to find carcasses in the forest. Dr. Bermejo and her husband
who had gone to Spain for the holidays were called back to their
study site. By January they searched the forest and discovered that
Apollo’s group had completely disappeared and was feared dead.
More than 150 gorillas died at Lossi and estimates are that thousands
have died in the region.
ECOFAC, the conservation organization
working in the region called in a team of medical experts. They
soon discovered that the cause of death was Ebola hemorrhagic fever.
More dead chimpanzees and gorillas were being found outside the
sanctuary motivating concern that the Ebola virus was headed toward
Odzala National Park. Odzala contains the densest population of
chimpanzees and gorillas in central Africa.
People in the area began to get sick as well, and the infection
was traced back to the consumption of Ebola tainted gorilla meat.
As of August 2004 at least 200 people have died of Ebola. Scientists
are now realizing that Ebola is a more important factor in the decline
of great apes (by almost 50%) across central Africa in the last
two decades than the bushmeat trade or deforestation. Other scientists
are working to identify the reservoir that houses the virus in order
to understand how the disease is spread. Today, Dr. Bermejo and
her trackers are working to find out exactly how many gorillas have
survived at Lossi. Only a handful of solitary males have been located.
At Odzala National Park, Bermejo and Illera are doing surveys to
see how Ebola has affected the great ape populations there. At one
clearing where at least 18 groups congregated, more than half of
those groups are missing and carcasses are being found in the forest.
The ecosystem of Lossi and Odzala have become a hot zone –
a living laboratory for us to try to understand the spread of Ebola.
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