Earth Day

A Moment to Reflect + Act

Silverback mountain gorilla, Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. © Gorilla Doctors.

The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. By then, Dian Fossey was more than three years into her ground-breaking research on mountain gorillas.

Dian Fossey with infant mountain gorilla, Rwanda. Photo by Robert I. M. Campbell.

Early in the 1980s, gorillas were dying unnecessarily from illness and injuries she knew could be prevented. At Dian’s request, the first gorilla doctor arrived in 1986 and we’ve been saving a species, one gorilla at a time, ever since.

In fact, our veterinary care accounts for up to 40% of the annual population growth rate in habituated mountain gorillas – the only great ape in the wild whose numbers are increasing.

Mountain gorilla family, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Uganda. © Skyler Bishop for Gorilla Doctors.

Gorillas are an ‘umbrella’ species for the thousands of animals, insects, and plants that make up their surrounding ecosystem. Protecting gorillas protects the entire ecosystem. And with Gorilla Doctors’ One Health approach, this extends to the humans who benefit in many ways including both health and livelihoods.

But mountain gorillas are still endangered and Grauer’s gorillas are critically endangered. They are just two examples of the thousands of endangered species around the world. When the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released their Global Assessment Report, they warned that around one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction.

Infant Grauer's gorilla, Virunga National Park, DR Congo. © Gorilla Doctors.

This potential loss of biodiversity has significant health consequences for us humans. According to Dr. Christine Johnson of UC Davis’ EpiCenter for Disease Dynamics, the loss of species diversity from over-exploitation and deforestation increases the possibility of viral spillover - putting animals and humans at risk. As well, this biodiversity loss also favors species that can adapt to human-altered environments further increasing the risk of disease transmission¹.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we all understand the connection between, and value of, wildlife conservation and human health more than ever before.

And through our understanding of this connection, we can be empowered to take action. We can shift our behaviors to live more sustainably, we can change the way we interact with wildlife, and we can make choices that serve our collective global health.

It’s all connected. When nature is healthy, we are healthy.

Looking for Ways to Take Action this Earth Day?

SUPPORT Gorilla Doctors commitment to eastern gorilla health and conservation.

Check out THESE SUGGESTIONS from EarthDay.org

References

¹Johnson, et al. (2020). Proceedings of the Royal Society B 287: 20192736

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