Senkwekwe Orphan Mountain Gorilla Center

Senkwekwe Center is the only facility for critically endangered orphan mountain gorillas in the world, located in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. Each gorilla suffered a traumatic poaching experience, injuries from snares, and/or losing their mothers in brutal killings. Now they are looked after by loving caretakers in a large forested enclosure with a night house and veterinarian facilities.

Caregiver Andre cuddles with his "daughter" Ndakasi. It's clearly a mutual affection.

A little history:

In early 2009, the rangers and warden of Virunga National Park re-gained control of the park following the takeover by General Nkunda and his army. At that time we began raising awareness about our two young orphan mountain gorillas, Ndeze and Ndakasi, and their living conditions in a small compound in the city of Goma, full of pollution and noise, far from any resemblance of their forested birth home.

We needed money to build a facility in which they could live, surrounded by trees and peace. During the last few months of that year we conducted an online campaign of unprecedented intensity, raised $211,000, and built the Senkwekwe Centre: a beautiful orphanage in the forest near the park headquarter of Rumangabo. Every dollar we raised was matched by the World Heritage Organization, with additional funding from both the Murry Foundation and the Howard G Buffett Foundation.

At the end of 2010, two more orphan mountain gorillas, Maisha and Koboko, aged 7 and 9, were transferred to the Senkwekwe Center from Rwanda where they had been living for many years in a small facility. This brought the total to four gorillas. In August of 2011, Rwandan authorities caught poachers as they crossed the border from Congo with a baby mountain gorilla who has since been cared for in Rwanda. This baby, Ihirwe, will soon move to the Senkwekwe Center to join the other orphaned mountain gorillas.

About the Orphan Gorillas:

These gorillas lost everything when they were captured and members of their family were killed. Here are their stories:

MAISHA, female, 9 years old:

Nine-year-old Maisha is the matriarch of the family. Everyone who knows mountain gorillas says she has a particularly beautiful face.

In 2004, Maisha was confiscated from a gang of poachers who had kept her in the most appalling conditions. She was tied inside a sack and hidden in a cave for two weeks, only occasionally let out to eat maize and sugar cane. By the time she was rescued, she was in pretty bad shape – thin and very low blood protein. She has recovered beautifully, but tends to show aggression around food, probably due to the trauma of her capture.

NDAKASI, female, 4 years old:

Ndakasi was barely 2-months old when she was found clinging to her murdered mother. Thanks to the loving care of Andre and MGVP vets, she survived against all odds.

In June 2007 rangers found Ndakasi’s mother dead with one bullet lodged in her brain and another in her arm. She had been shot at close range through the back of the head in what amounted to an execution. The Rangers found bananas near her body, and they suspected that the killer used the food to lure the animal to its death. Ndakasi – barely two months old – was found clinging to her dead mother. She was badly dehydrated, in shock, and very frightened. Ranger Andre Bauma was called in to try to keep her alive through the night, although no one thought she would make it. Through a torrential rain storm that lasted all night, Andre held baby Ndakasi tightly to his bare chest to keep her warm and give her comfort. MGVP gorilla vets continued her care and she recovered slowly. Ndakasi was later joined by orphan Ndeze and the two became inseparable in their house in Goma before moving to the newly built Senkwekwe Center in 2010.

NDEZE, female, 4 years old:

Ndeze, just months before her mother, father, and other members of her family were murdered.

In 2007, Ndeze’s mother, Safari, was brutally murdered by armed men and set on fire, along with four other adult gorillas, including silverback Senkwekwe. This unthinkable crime came to be known as the Rugendo Massacre, and was featured as Newsweek’s cover story on August 5th, 2007. It was the worst gorilla killing in the park’s history. Ndeze, and what was left of her family, was found by rangers several days later clinging to the back of her brother. Because Ndeze was too young to survive without her mother’s breast milk, vets had to intervene and rescue her. Caretaker Andre became vitally important in giving Ndeze and Ndakasi the security and love they needed. For the two young gorillas, Andre is like their parent, and he refers to them as “his girls.”

KABOKO, male, 7 years old. Died in July 2012:

Kaboko has a long way to go before becoming a silverback, so he is not the one in charge of this family. He manages to do everything a gorilla needs to do with just one hand.

In March of 2007, 3-year old Kaboko was found in the resort town of Gisenyi, just over the border from Congo, with a terrible wound to his right arm just above the wrist where a snare was deeply embedded. Gorilla vets from MGVP couldn’t save the hand so it had to be amputated. Although the physical wound healed quickly, it took about a year for Kaboko to recover from what appeared to be depression, solitary behavior, and suspicion of both gorillas and humans. He is now part of the mountain gorilla family at the Senkwekwe Center and is socially normal. He even manages to climb trees with one hand and beat his chest like all normal males do. Kaboko died in July 2012 from gastrointestinal problems the day before fighting broke out between M23 rebels and the Congolese army at Rumangabo.

Andre’s Growing Relationship With the Older Orphan Gorillas

20 Mar 2012 Filed under (Uncategorized) by gorilla.cd @ 11:31 am

Ndeze and Andre I visited the Senkwekwe Orphan Gorilla Center on Sunday and had a chance to watch Andre inside the enclosure with the mountain gorillas.  Andre’s relationship with the two older gorillas has really changed over the last year. Maisha – 10 years old – and Koboko – 8 years old – weren’t raised by Andre like the two small gorillas, so they haven’t felt the same bond. But more and more when Andre goes into ... Read more »

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