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Follow the Work of Dr. Jan Ramer in Africa
 In summer 2009, Dr. Jan Ramer, the Indianapolis Zoo's Associate Veterinarian, was given a two-year leave of absence to take a job that she had always coveted - Regional Field Veterinary Manager for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) in Rwanda. The position manages seven veterinarians (known as The Gorillas Doctors) in three countries (Rwanda, Congo and Uganda) and 15 lay people (guards, orphan gorilla care takers), and facilitates the growing human health program in the area. It is a model conservation program with the "ecosystem health" approach. Dr. Ramer's participation in the program reflects the Zoo’s commitment to both in-situ and ex-situ conservation programs.
Everyone here can follow the work of Dr. Ramer and her staff through three different venues. There is more information on the MGVP on their web site at http://www.gorilladoctors.org/. From that site there is a link to Dr. Ramer's field blog as she goes about her work over the next two years: http://www.gorilladoctorsblog.org/. And finally, get the human side of the story with the wonderfully insightful and very personal thoughts of Dr. Jan Ramer herself on her blog: http://icantbelieveiminafrica.blogspot.com/.
Photo by Julie Ghrist, Art of Conservation
 MGVP began as the Volcano Veterinary Center in 1986, a tiny clinic established by the Morris Animal Foundation at the request of the late anthropologist, Dr. Dian Fossey. At that time, health care was not available to the mountain gorillas. In 1985, Dr. Fossey met with wildlife enthusiast Ruth Morris Keesling, whose father was Dr. Mark Morris, founder of the Morris Animal Foundation and requested funding for a veterinary program. Ms. Keesling responded with the idea of a veterinary clinic. The Foundation responded by working with the Rwandan government to create a health-care policy that would protect the mountain gorillas. It built a veterinary center and hired a veterinarian, whose job was to provide medical care to gorillas that sustained human-caused illnesses or injuries.
For nearly 20 years now, MGVP veterinarians have been helping mountain gorillas survive by providing them with life-saving veterinary care for human-caused or life-threatening illnesses and injuries. With teams of experienced personnel, MGVP veterinarians track ailing gorillas, observe and treat them when needed - inside their native habitat. Because it takes healthy people to save wildlife, they also run an employee health program for park staff. The MGVP also provides health care and monitoring for the endangered eastern lowland or Grauer's gorilla in Congo, and for a handful of orphaned gorillas.
Without the MGVP, mountain gorillas might not exist today. Still, these animals remain critically endangered due to threats from war, poaching, habitat destruction and human disease. Their numbers remain critically low, with no fall back breeding population in sanctuaries or zoos.
Photo by Mike Crowther
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