FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Joanna Kulesa
Kulesa Faul, Inc./for The Gorilla Foundation
(408) 806-9201
jkulesa@kulesafaul.com 

The Gorilla Foundation Grants 2009 Wildlife Protectors Award

Redwood City, CA – July 22, 2009 — The Gorilla Foundation, home of Koko the lowland gorilla who can speak to us through the use of America Sign Language, announced today that it has chosen Cameroonian scientist Denis Ndeloh Etiendem as the recipient of its 2009 Wildlife Protectors Award. Mr. Ndeloh is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Human Ecology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.  He will use his $10,000 award funds (made possible by donations from Eric and Catherine Raymond’s Save the Species Foundation and the Dawn and Raymond Arnall Foundation) to begin groundbreaking work studying Cross River Gorillas, the most critically endangered subspecies of gorilla. His project will focus on Southwest Cameroon’s Mawambi hills, home of an isolated group of Cross River Gorillas, which have never been studied or protected.

Dr. Penny Patterson, co-founder, president and research director of The Gorilla Foundation, states, “We’re proud to recognize Mr. Ndeloh’s important work studying the Cross River Gorillas of Cameroon. His research will greatly enhance our understanding of the ape’s ecology and provide a dynamic picture of overlapping human-gorilla forest use, critical to the preservation of these amazing creatures.”

The award will support Mr. Ndeloh’s pilot study this summer, as prelude to his long-term doctoral research effort. The presence of Mr. Ndeloh and his research team on the ground will reduce the conservation threat to the gorilla population of the Mawambi region, while permanent conservation and management plans are produced for the area.

Mr. Ndeloh, the first Cameroonian from the Cross-Sanaga region to pursue a doctorate in primate conservation, states, “The Gorilla Foundation has been a great supporter of great ape research, conservation and education. I’m proud to be honored with this award and very thankful for the foundation’s support in furthering our work with the Cross River Gorillas.”

Click here for Koko’s comments in American Sign Language.

Conservation through Communication
Through its Conservation Education program, The Gorilla Foundation and it’s partners in Africa work with schools, community groups, and wildlife protection advocates in Africa to promote empathy and understanding of the great apes using educational materials such as the books Koko’s Kitten and Michael’s Dream, video resources, and Koko’s sign language posters,

The Gorilla Foundation’s current major goals include:

• Establishing the Maui Ape Preserve
• Helping Koko to have a baby, with her mate, Ndume, thus fostering cultural transmission of a human-taught language to a new generation of gorillas
• Providing and modeling the best care for gorillas in captivity
• Developing multimedia and web-based educational resources for partner institutions, schools and wildlife advocates to help apply our knowledge base to practical conservation, legal rights and captive care achievements for great apes

About The Gorilla Foundation
The Gorilla Foundation is dedicated to the preservation, protection and well being of gorillas through interspecies communication research and education ¾ Conservation through Communication. The foundation was established in 1976 and is best known for its groundbreaking work with two western lowland gorillas, Koko and Michael, who were taught to become fluent in American Sign Language. The results are published in numerous research papers, books and videos available in our bibliography.

The Gorilla Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 corporation and is underwritten by donations from individuals, grants from foundations and corporations, and educational product sales. The Foundation receives no support from government sources. Donate here.

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