Art for Gorillas

Dr. Jean Felix Kinani is MGVP’s Rwandan in-country field veterinarian. Today he visits AoC’s class at Nyabitsinde Primary School.

A student volunteer pretends to be a sick or injured mountain gorilla as Dr. Jean Felix and Innocent prepare the kids for what’s about to happen next.

Wearing a mask to help prevent disease transmission, Dr. Jean Felix has darted his pretend patient with anesthesia. From here the gorilla will be treated or a snare will be removed. Usually a reversal is administered and the patient awakens quickly after a procedure.

Pretending mops and brooms are trees and bamboo, the students act out a possible scene in the forest while the vets attempt to help the endangered mountain gorillas.

Thank you Drs. Magdalena, Jan, and Jean Felix for sharing with our young Rwandan students what you do to help the mountain gorillas. Your expertise and dedication is remarkable.

Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project’s Rwanda-based vets take time out of their busy schedule to visit our students and shed more light on HOW and WHY they treat the endangered mountain gorillas. Dr. Jan Ramer, MGVP Regional Veterinary Manager, is here today with AoC’s Rushubi Primary School students. Like Dr. Magdalena who visited a different set of kids previously, these gorilla vets encourage our young students to work very hard in school so that perhaps they can be vets one day. Let’s hope!!!

Dr. Jan gives a student a chance to experience what it is like to hold a dart gun. She reiterates that the vets do not carry guns with bullets – only guns with medicine!

It’s a lot more difficult in the forest to prepare the syringe and dart gun so that the patients don’t see – let alone to fire the gun with the syringe hitting the correct spot on the gorilla.

After a very exciting and informative talk with the kids, Dr. Jan settles in for computer work while the students paint their papier mache mountain gorillas. What a great class! Thanks Dr. Jan for your visit. Please come back next year with a new group of aspiring naturalists and vets.

MGVP’s Dr. Jean Felix next!

Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project’s Rwanda-based vets take time out of their busy schedule to visit our students and shed more light on HOW and WHY they treat the endangered mountain gorillas. Dr. Magdalena, an expert on wild animal health care, talks with the kids and lets the kids practice with some of the tools she uses to treat gorillas in the nearby forest.

AoC’s Innocent and Eric stand by to translate and help Dr. Magdalena as she opens up her medical kit which includes all necessary equipment needed for treating sick or injured gorillas in Volcanoes National Park – quite a bit of equipment to be carrying up the steep volcanoes.

Dr. Magdalena prepares a flying syringe with either antibiotics or anesthesia. Innocent is translating her English to Kinyarwanda.

Innocent pretends to be a tree as Dr. Magdalena and a student prepare to shoot the dart gun containing the prepared syringe out the classroom door. We all made sure no one would be walking by! Kids screech with excitement with the sound of the dart gun and the launching of the syringe. They also get a much better idea of how the Gorilla Docs work in the forest!

Dr. Jan is next to enlighten the kids. Please tune in next time.