New Site to Study Wild Gorillas

Two of the top great-ape research sites in central Africa—the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project and the Mondika Gorilla Project—are about to have even more common.

The sites already share similarities. Both began as unprotected areas within the Kabo logging concession outside the Republic of Congo’s Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. Researchers were drawn to them because the areas housed important populations of western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees, all in one habitat.

The two sites also had the benefit of being undisturbed, offering a look at how great apes live outside human influence. The Goualougo Triangle lies between the Ndoki and Goualougo Rivers and is one of the least disturbed areas in all of central Africa. Mondika is located in the Djéké Triangle, an area never exploited for timber. The Djéké Triangle is also bounded on one side by the Ndoki River and a smaller watercourse called the Djéké.

Even though these areas were outside the borders of the National Park as it was created in 1993, the Goualougo Triangle and Mondika are crucial for the region’s biodiversity and conservation. At the time, both bordered the park and served critical roles in protecting its integrity. The Djéké Triangle, for instance, is an important conservation conduit in the Sangha Trinational Protected Area network, connecting the National Parks in Central African Republic and Republic of Congo.

At the same time, both also areas faced imminent risk of timber exploitation. It was only following extensive discussions between Congolaise Industrielle du Bois, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the government of Congo, the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project, Washington University in St Louis and Stony Brook University research groups that stakeholders agreed that the biological value of the Goualougo and Djéké Triangles should be maintained and the forests protected. The Goualougo Triangle was annexed into the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in 2013 by presidential decree. The Djéké Triangle was also protected as a “conservation set-aside” neighboring the National Park in 2004.  

Lincoln Park Zoo Research Fellow and Goualougo Triangle Ape Project Co-Director Dave Morgan, Ph.D., hikes through a swamp with a Congolese research assistant to travel to the remote Mondika field site.

So what’s changing now in the relationship between the two sites? Well, after years of being strictly a research site, Mondika became better known as a tourist destination for individuals eager to view gorillas in central Africa. There are two habituated social groups there named after their dominant males: “Kingo” and “Buka.” Both groups are accustomed to the presence of humans and are monitored by a dedicated team of trackers and three Congolese research assistants.

Two gorilla groups at Mondika at habituated to human presence, providing invaluable opportunities to closely study these complex animals in the wild.

Recently, the Wildlife Conservation Society-Congo Program approached the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project with an offer to lead the research, health and conservation activities at Mondika. We eagerly accepted.

This new research site offers a great opportunity to standardize research across two great-ape habitats separated by just 60 kilometers. Comparisons between the Mondika and Goualougo Triangle gorilla groups will provide a more comprehensive understanding of gorillas’ resource needs within the Kabo logging concession. At the same time, Mondika lets us expand our existing studies to look at the how tourism impacts the gorillas.

By placing the Mondika gorilla groups under the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project umbrella, we have an exciting opportunity to learn more about these wild apes—and to build plans to conserve them for future generations.

Dave Morgan

David Morgan, Ph.D., is a research fellow in Lincoln Park Zoo's Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes and the co-director of the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project.

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Al Jazeera English filed a series of reports from the Republic of Congo's remote Goualougo Triangle, highlighting zoo efforts to study and save gorillas and chimpanzees in one of the most remote places on Earth.