Uganda’s first wildlife vet on her revolutionary gorilla conservation
Uganda’s first wildlife vet on her revolutionary gorilla conservation

        
                
                        
                                                            
                                                                        Life
                                
                                                        
                            

                            
                                                            Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka explains how her unconventional way of combining public health and conservation is helping to bring mountain gorillas back from the brink after years of population decline
                            
                            
                            
                            
        

    
        Facebook / Meta
        
            
        
    

        

    
        Twitter / X icon
        
    

        

    

        

    
    Linkedin
    
        
    
    

        

    
        Reddit
        
            
        
    

    
    
        Email
        
            
            
        
    

    
    
        
            
        
    
                        
                    
                
                    Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has studied gorillas for over 20 yearskibuuka mukisa/UNEP
WHEN Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka became Uganda’s first wildlife vet in 1995, there were just 650 wild mountain gorillas in the world, 300 of which were in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in south-western Uganda. The species as a whole was critically endangered and the future looked bleak.
Then Kalema-Zikusoka had an idea. At just 25 years old, having recently graduated from London’s Royal Veterinary College, she recognised that three major threats to the gorillas – disease, habitat loss and poaching – could be tackled by improving the health and well-being of local people. This approach was highly unusual at the time, but is now seen as a model of conservation practice globally.
In 2003, she left the Ugandan Wildlife Service to become founder and chief executive officer of non-profit organisation Conservation Through Public Health. She has spent the past 20 years conserving mountain gorillas in Bwindi, and populations are on the rise. Her memoir, Walking With Gorillas, will be published on 13 April. She spoke to New Scientist about her life and work.
Gorillas are vulnerable to many of the diseases that affect their human neighboursJo-Anne McArthur
Graham Lawton: How did you get the job as Uganda’s first wildlife vet straight out of veterinary college?
Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka: Whenever I came home on holidays from college, I worked with wildlife. I worked in Budongo Forest, where I did my very first study on wildlife, looking at parasites in the faecal samples of chimps. Two years later, I went to Bwindi and I studied mountain gorillas.
I thought, I would like to do…
                                    
            
    