MGVP's Congolese field veterinarians, Dr. Eddy Kambale and Dr. Jacques Iyanya have recently begun to apply our model health care program to the eastern lowland gorilla, also known as the Grauer's gorilla, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

At this time, monitoring has just begun. The veterinarians are working with the park staff of the Institut Congolese pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) to identify the habituated gorillas in the Kahuzi-Beiga National Park (PNKB). This work includes photographing each one and documenting their identifiable features. Not every lowland gorilla has a distinctive a nose print like the mountain gorilla.

Once the known gorillas in PNKB can be regularly identified, their health will be monitored daily as is the case with the mountain gorillas in the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda.