New Partnerships Will Help Protect Two Endangered Species Found at the Zoo—Gorillas and Grey Crowned Cranes
At Denver Zoo’s 80-acre campus three miles east of downtown Denver, a troop of Critically Endangered western lowland gorillas enjoy the relative peace and security provided by attentive animal care and health teams and a spacious habitat.
More than 8,500 miles away in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, their wild cousins, Endangered mountain gorillas, face a multitude of threats, including habitat loss and disease transmission. Denver Zoo is expanding its wildlife conservation efforts to help protect the species in partnership with Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an organization focused on the inter- section of wildlife and human health in and around Bwindi.
“Mountain gorillas and their wild habitats are among the species and landscapes that Denver Zoo is focusing on that have a high conservation need,” said Dr. Lynn Von Hagen, Regional Conservation Director for Africa at Denver Zoo. “Our partnership with CTPH reflects our approach to wildlife conservation that aims to support community-centered organizations and align our conservation work with our efforts globally and on our campus in Denver.”
Monitoring Gorilla Health in Uganda
Denver Zoo is supporting a veterinary technician for CTPH, which will ease the workload of its current vet and technicians as they continue to monitor the health of mountain gorilla groups in the region. CTPH regularly monitors the health of the Bwindi gorilla groups through fecal samples, engages with local villagers on zoonotic disease prevention, trains rangers and porters on best practices for gorilla tourism, and supports livelihood projects, such as coffee growing for the local community. The Zoo is also looking forward to future opportunities to support CTPH in multiple ways as they continue their important work with the hopes of expansion to other areas where gorillas are found.
“We are extremely thrilled and honored to be a partner of Denver Zoo and are looking forward to working closely with the zoo to strengthen our work to protect the gorillas and meaningfully engage the Bwindi local communities in conservation,” said Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health.
Supporting Grey Crowned Crane Conservation Champions in Rwanda
The Zoo is also partnering with Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA) to help protect Endangered grey crowned cranes, which face threats from habitat loss and the illegal wildlife trade. RWCA recently expanded its crane conservation program through a transboundary partnership with Nature Uganda, Nature Tanzania and the International Crane Foundation that employs local people as “Community Conservation Champions” to survey and monitor crane populations and educate fellow community members. The Zoo’s investment in RWCA will support salaries and field supplies for these Champions. These contributions along with capacity-strengthening will contribute to the program’s efforts to increase the spe- cies’ numbers across their native ranges across three East African countries and reduce overall population losses from the aforementioned threats.
“Support from Denver Zoo is helping us to strengthen our cross-border collaboration with Uganda and Tanzania to ensure that we can have a regional response to the protection of these amazing birds,” said Dr. Olivier Nsengimana, Founder and Executive Director of Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association. “We recruit and train Community Conservation Champions who live nearby crane habitats and work hard to monitor and protect the species and raise awareness among local communities to care for the wetland habitats. We are extremely grateful for this support and the great impact it will make!”
A recognized leader in wildlife conservation, Denver Zoo has dedicated staff and funding to more than 600 wildlife conservation projects in 62 countries since 1997, including current field conservation programs in North America, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Zoo also recently announced the launch of new wildlife conservation programs in Southeast Asia with programs and partnerships that will help protect threatened species, including Asian elephants, Sumatran orangutans, Sumatran tigers, and northern white-cheeked gibbons.
The Zoo’s $75 million “Into the Great Wild Open” campaign supports current and future conservation efforts. For more information and upcoming news and announcements, visit DenverZoo.org or follow the Zoo on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Source: The Denver Zoo
