Mountain Gorillas Need Your Help!

Please donate today!             

In 1978, WCS scientist Dr. Amy Vedder had just started her observations of mountain gorillas in the lush forests of Rwanda's Virunga volcanoes, when she met a young gorilla named Pablo, then just four-years old.  Pablo's mother had left him one afternoon to join another group of gorillas, and he chose to remain with his family group rather than follow his mother into the unknown. 

Although Pablo rarely nursed anymore, he still relied on his mother's comfort.  After no other female gorilla in his family group would adopt him, he approached Dr. Vedder, resting in her warm arms as a heavy rain began to fall, hoping she would become his surrogate mother.

Athough in his best interests, with a heavy heart she turned Pablo away.  He survived this change in his life, however, and lived through two decades of threats from poaching, shrinking habitat, and Rwanda's brutal civil war and genocide.  Today, Dr. Vedder happily reports, he has become the leader of the largest mountain gorilla family ever known, numbering 44 individuals.

Yet danger still persists for mountain gorillas– recently three new gorilla families were torn apart:  mothers were killed by poachers and their babies taken to be illegally sold.  More work needs to be done!

WCS needs your support today to ensure that mountain gorillas remain safe from poaching and loss of habitat in their remaining homeland.  Today, it is estimated that less than 700 live in the forests of the Virunga volcanoes and Uganda, and WCS is currently participating in the first census of mountain gorillas since 1989. 

Your commitment to save these magnificent great apes, such a close link to humankind, is vital to WCS–  please help us today so mountain gorillas like Pablo and his family may continue to dwell in their lush forest home in peace.

Your donation of $50 or more will help provide training and equipment for WCS researchers to continue our commitment to protect mountain gorillas.  WCS was rated as one of the top ten best charities known to people by Charity Navigator, so you can be confident that your donation will be used wisely. 

WCS scientists Dr. Amy Vedder and husband Dr. Bill Weber are the authors of In the Kingdom of Gorillas– Fragile Species in a Dangerous Land, Simon and Schuster.