Dear Friend,
Deep in the Lesio-Louna Reserve in the Republic of Congo โ home of our future MaKoko Gorilla Sanctuary โ a family of nine reintroduced gorillas found their way back to each other. I want to share how their story unfolded, as conveyed by our partner, The Aspinall Foundation.
Last December, field teams from The Aspinall Foundation noticed that a group that had been traveling together for years, led by a young silverback, suddenly separated after another male had been following them for several weeks.
Camera traps caught a two-year-old infant alone at night, and the infantโs mother, Koto, wandering by herself the next morning. Another mother in the group, Tchivou, paced back and forth in front of the same camera for days with her own baby on her back, seeming to search for the rest of her family.
By early January, the footage shows some good news: three of the mothers, Tchivou, Massabi and a third female, had found one another again and were traveling together with their infants. But Koto and her infant were still missing and it was not yet known whether the entire group would reunite
Then in March, camera traps recorded the full family of nine traveling together again โ the silverback, and all four adult females, each with a youngster.
Koko and Michael taught me how important social relationships are in a gorillaโs life, through years of observation and interaction.
Seeing this African gorilla family reunite after months apart reminds us that the bonds we came to know through Koko and Michael are part of a much larger gorilla story.
With Koko love,
Penny Patterson
President, CEO and Founder
The Gorilla Foundation / koko.org
Conservation through Communication
The Gorilla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our Federal Tax ID is: 942-38-6151
