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FVGP Rehabilitation

The Fernan-Vaz Gorilla Project's rehabilitation centre was initiated in November 2006 and consists of a quarantine facility and an orphanage.
 
Phase I: Quarantine
 
The quarantine facility was built in October 2007 and is a housing infrastructure where gorilla orphans, confiscated legally through wildlife authorities, are isolated for a minimum of 3 months for proper health screening. This helps minimise the possibility of diseases getting transmitted to humans or other gorillas at the site. The quarantine period also allows the newcomer to gradually adjust to new surroundings and the caretakers. Two caretakers are assigned to a new gorilla orphan during the entire quarantine period.
 
Phase II: Social integration
 
After the quarantine period, the gorilla orphan starts his or her social integration with other gorilla orphans.   The strength of the social ties within the group is a major determining factor for the group's reintroduction potential since you can rarely, if at all, reintroduce an individual alone.  
 
Phase III: Forest rehabilitation
 
The group of gorilla orphans forage freely within the forest every day to learn and apply wild gorilla behaviour. 
Gorilla orphanage
The orphanage is a wooden cabin where the gorillas being rehabilitated in the forest sleep at night.  At such a young age, the gorillas are not yet confident enough to sleep by themselves in the forest at night. The process of sleeping out in the forest will be done gradually as the gorillas gain more self-confidence on a new island of their own. 
 
Gorilla island
The gorillas have moved one step closer to freedom on the island of "Orique", away from human infrastructures and activities. A small team of caregivers will monitor the gorillas’ progress from a base camp at one corner of the island.
Phase IV: Reintroduction
Our hope is to one day reintroduce this group of young gorillas back into the wild. 
 
Human contact is strictly prohibited due to:
  1. the possibility for disease transmission between humans and gorillas;
  2. the importance of minimising the stress level of each gorilla (stress compromises the proper functioning of the immune system), and;
  3. the necessity of avoiding habituating these gorillas to humans. 
Only the local Gabonese caretakers have limited interaction with these gorillas as “surrogate parents”.
 
Reintroduction is a very difficult endeavor and requires a multidisplinary approach.  Only the Projet Protection Gorille (PPG) in both the Republic of Congo and Gabon, under the Aspinall Foundation, have managed to reintroduce gorillas in Africa so far.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published specific reintroduction guidelines for Great Apes.  www.iucn.org
 
 
Gorilla Quarantine facility  
 
Gorilla Orphanage
 
Gorilla Rehabilitation in the forest
 
The group will hopefully one day be reintroduced into the wild
Subpages (1): Rehabilitation Gorillas