When renowned zoologist Dian Fossey, the inspiration behind the film Gorillas in the Mist, was murdered in 1985 there were just 250 mountain gorillas left in Africa’s Virunga mountains.
But 27 years on, numbers of the gentle giants have doubled, thanks to a group of doctors that her work inspired.
The Gorilla Doctors, formed as the Virunga Veterinary Center a year after Fossey's death, take care of injured and critically ill gorillas and provide medical treatment and quarantine of orphans, with as many as eight gorillas cared for at any one time.
Starting out with the first Gorilla Doctor - Dr James Foster - the group now employs 16 vets and operates across three countries - the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.
The group rescue gorillas from poacher's snares or when they have been exposed to potentially fatal human viruses, darting the animals with antibiotics or drugging them and operating on the jungle floor.
They have been led for the past 13 years by Dr Mike Cranfield, a faculty member of the Wildlife Health Centre of the University of California Davis and divides his time between Maryland Zoo in Baltimore and central Africa.
But he admits that there are dangers working with such large animals.
He said: 'If the gorilla screams when darted, there is usually chaos and the silverbacks rush in to protect them.'
His 'closest call' came after darting a mother with a sleeping drug so he could treat her sick infant.
He said: 'Because it was so young I tried to work on it without anaesthetising it but it kept screaming and screaming.'
source: dailymail
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