Gorillas fill any onlooker with a sense of awe, with their magnificent power and steady gaze that suggests more than a hint of intelligence.  I remember feeling profoundly humbled when I looked in a Gorilla's eyes at a nature reserve, and wondered what a strange notion we have of advanced evolution when the so called 'civilized' species keeps these noble creatures in cages while they live naturally and peacefully within their habitat causing no destruction or cruelty.

According to recent studies, there are only about 740 mountain gorillas left in on the planet, located in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The University of California, Davis has recently unveiled a program called "One Health" which is designed to help preserve these wild animals.

 

One Health has joined together with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project to safeguard the gorillas by concentrating their energy on the animals’ health along with that of the surrounding communities of humans and livestock.

 

One Health believes that because of their close proximity, the well being of humans and animals are linked.  They also take into consideration the health of the environment on which all  species are dependent,  and believe that everything should be considered holistically in order to improve the conditions of every living thing within the region.

 

The greatest threat to the gorilla population right now is disease. Therefore, the top priority of the program is to try and supply adequate medical care, but not only to the gorillas.

The group will also attempt to improve the overall health conditions and nutrition of the people and the livestock which live in the surrounding regions. This will be a welcome benefit to the local natives as they depend on their livestock as a key source of income.  A knock on effect of improved farming, would hopefully be that fewer locals would be driven to hunt gorillas for the extra income that selling their carcasses can provide.
 
While the gorillas roam in the wild instead of captivity, they still provide a significant lift to the economies of various countries due to the recent trend foreco -tourism. The animals are quite popular with the tourists and it’s estimated that between 2000 and 3000 of them come to get a glance of the gorillas each year. The money that tourists bring in to the regions hasn’t gone unnoticed by local governments and it is in their best interests to see the animals survive.

This popularity, however is also a part of the problem, as the visiting tourists can also spread disease and infections to the gorillas, who are closely enough related to the human species to suffer from the same viruses that we do.