Tweeting Ugandan gorillas make friends online
 
 
September 26, 2009

 
Lurking deep in the mist-glazed forests of east Africa, Uganda's 
mountain gorillas are preparing to 'tweet' for their survival.
 
Lurking deep in the mist-glazed forests of east Africa, Uganda's 
mountain gorillas are preparing to 'tweet' for their survival.
Photograph by: Finbarr O’Reilly, Reuters

BWINDI IMPENETRABLE FOREST, Uganda -- Lurking deep in the mist-glazed 
forests of east Africa, Uganda's mountain gorillas are preparing to 
'tweet' for their survival.

With the launch on Saturday of the "Friend a Gorilla" campaign, human 
fans will soon be able to follow the everyday drama of one of the few 
remaining 720 mountain gorillas online, far from the red ants, mud and 
tropical rain of their habitats.

When the friendagorilla.org site goes live, users will be able to 
access videos, pictures and rangers' blogs through websites like 
Facebook and Twitter, said Moses Mapesa Wafula, head of the Uganda 
Wildlife Authority (UWA).

They will also be able to follow their new friends via satellite 
tracking.

"By paying one dollar to Friend a Gorilla, everybody contributes to the 
conservation of this species," Wafula said.

Not everybody can afford the $500 price tag for a real gorilla trek but 
the fibre-optic tentacles of globalisation will make it possible for 
anyone to watch a mother grooming her children, juvenile males fighting 
for dominance or even feel the rush of being charged by a 500 pound 
(225 kg) silverback male.

Tourist receipts represent Uganda's second largest foreign exchange 
earner.

Organisers say the campaign is the first time social networking has 
been harnessed for conservation and hope it will generate $100,000 in 
the first three months and a further $350,000 within the first year.

Drafted in to help publicise the campaign, actor Jason Biggs, star of 
the American Pie comedies, said gazing into the eyes of a gorilla was 
like meeting an old friend.

"It was pretty surreal. I felt like when I made eye contact with the 
gorillas, it was like an out-of-body experience," Biggs told Reuters 
after a face to face encounter with one of the gorillas at Bwindi. "It 
was mind-blowing."

With around 370 mountain gorillas, Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable 
National Park plays host to roughly half the global population, with 
the remainder scattered across volcanoes in nearby Rwanda and the war-
ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.

The gorilla's habitat is threatened by illegal logging for charcoal, 
timber and agriculture and are also poached for bush meat, UWA staff 
said.

Although the gorillas remain endangered, UWA has registered growth 
rates of 12 percent and watched the gorilla population double over the 
last 25 years, according to Wafula.

He said the money raised by the Friend and Gorilla campaign would 
contribute towards conservation efforts as well as help promote 
alternative livelihoods for people living in and around the park.