On June 12th, Eddy Kambale, a doctor with the Gorilla Doctors association, received a call from a ranger patrol about a young gorilla whose foot was stuck in a trap.
Source: Gorilla Doctors
Accompanied by another doctor, he hurried to Virunga National Park, a reserve spread over many hundreds of kilometers to the east of the Congo, on the border with Uganda. An hour later, they arrived at the place where Yalala, a young female, had been trapped in a snare for six days.Traumatized, Yalala was terrified by the arrival of her rescuers and too weak to eat or sit up. To calm her down, the team decided to inject her with a light sedative, which would allow them to examine her injured foot.
Source: Gorilla Doctors
Unfortunately, the rope snare was very tight and had cut off the blood flow in Yalala's foot. It was too late to save it, and it was immediately amputated to avoid an infection. The operation was a success and the young gorilla was out of the forest by nightfall.After spending the night at the l'Institut congolais pour la conservation de la nature (ICCN), Yalala was still unable to eat and couldn't rejoin her family in the wild. She was therefore transported to the Senkwekwe Center for more intensive care.
Source: Gorilla Doctors
Hours later, she had already gained strength. On June 14th, only two days after her rescue, she was able to eat solid food and another three days saw her back to full health, even having enough energy to bite Eddy twice!The lack of food and water, the amputation or even her abandonment hasn't stopped Yalala from rebounding from her ordeal. After a while, she may even be able to be released back into the wild, despite her missing foot.
Source: Gorilla Doctors
In the meantime, the doctors have given her a gorgeous cuddly toy gorilla, so that she doesn't feel homesick. She never puts it down!You can visit the Virunga National Park website to support orphan gorillas here.
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