Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes by Pamela S. Turner. Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 64pp. ISBN 0-618-44555-2.

SB&F review:

Mountain gorillas are endangered primates whose range is restricted to small mountainous areas in Rwanda and Uganda, Africa. Ecotourists bring much needed revenue to offset the costs associated with protecting gorillas in their natural habitat, thereby providing salaries for park rangers who struggle to keep poachers and encroaching humans out, as well providing money for hospitals and schools. There are negative costs to bringing tourists close to the gorillas, however, in the form of human disease to which the gorillas are susceptible. Gorillas also get sick from going into areas inhabited by humans (gardens, farms, garbage dumps), and they get injured by snares set by poachers or shot in this war-torn part of Africa.
The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) attempts to save mountain gorilla populations by treating sick or injured gorillas and vaccinating them against measles and other diseases. This book documents the efforts of veterinarians and their assistants working for the MGVP. Accounts of interactions between the veterinarians and specific gorillas are presented, and more general information is given about this part of Africa, the activities engaged in by MGVP staff (including educating children in settlements near the gorillas' habitat), and the collection of samples of hair and feces to test for genetic relatedness, parasites, and diseases. The MGVP is sponsored by the Morris Animal Foundation, whose Web site is www.MorrisAnimalFoundation.org.

About the author:

Pamela S. Turner has a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. She first visited mountain gorillas in 1978 while living in East Africa. Now a science and nature writer, she is the author of the award-winning Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2004. Ms. Turner lives with her family in Oakland, California.

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