The relationship between mountain gorillas and the humans who protect them is, under normal circumstances, a managed distance. The seven-metre rule, the face masks, the controlled approach — these exist to maintain a boundary that protects the gorillas from human disease and maintains a wildness that is both ethically appropriate and practically necessary for long-term conservation. Occasionally circumstances produce exceptions to this distance. The case of the orphaned gorilla at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary’s sister facility in Uganda — and the documented relationship between the juvenile and a specific care ranger over five years — is one such exception, and it raises questions about the nature of cross-species bonds that conservation managers continue to grapple with.
Gorilla Orphans and Conservation Centres
Mountain gorilla orphans are rare precisely because the conservation model that protects habituated groups is effective. The situations that produce orphaned gorillas — poaching, group disruption, sudden maternal death — are uncommon in Uganda’s protected areas. When they do occur, orphaned gorillas below the age at which they can survive independently require intensive care that cannot be provided by wild groups and must be handled by specialist conservation facilities.
The orphan in this account was found at approximately eight months of age near the boundary of Bwindi’s Buhoma sector — the circumstances of his separation from his family were unclear, though the absence of his mother was confirmed by UWA trackers who identified him as belonging to a habituated group and found no corresponding missing adult female in the monitoring records. He was malnourished and dehydrated when found and required immediate veterinary intervention.
The Care Programme
Mountain gorilla orphans in Uganda are managed under protocols developed by UWA and Gorilla Doctors in coordination with international conservation organisations. The protocol for an infant too young to be reintegrated into a wild group involves intensive daily care — feeding, health monitoring, social stimulation — provided by a small team of designated care rangers who are screened for health, trained in gorilla behaviour, and committed to extended periods of close contact with the animal.
The care ranger assigned to this juvenile was a UWA employee who had previously worked as a tracker in the Buhoma sector. His assignment to the care programme was initially for a three-month rotation. He remained for five years — by his own request and with UWA’s approval — because the bond that developed between him and the juvenile was assessed as beneficial to the juvenile’s psychological development and detrimental to disrupt.
The Bond
The bond was documented by researchers through behavioural observation and is described in conservation literature as a secure attachment in the psychological sense — the juvenile showed reduced stress indicators in the ranger’s presence, sought proximity to him during novel or threatening situations, and displayed the social confidence associated with secure attachment in the exploration of new environments. The ranger, by his own account, experienced the relationship as having the emotional qualities of a significant long-term relationship, while maintaining the professional awareness that the goal was always the juvenile’s eventual rehabilitation to a social group rather than dependency on a human.
The juvenile was eventually transferred to a facility working toward social group integration. The ranger returned to tracker work at Buhoma. The gorilla trekking permit costs $800. The rangers who make the system work carry commitments that are not fully captured by job descriptions. What this ranger gave, over five years in a care facility, is part of the same story.
