A trip to the Diane Master Gorilla Foundation headquarters in Rwanda

KPRC 2 and the Houston Zoo are in Rwanda to document conservation efforts supported by the people of Houston.please continue your journey click2houston.com/conservation.

Day 3 of our trip was our first full day in this beautiful and lively place. Rwanda is a country with a lot of people, but it is also a surprisingly clean country. Our Saturday morning started with his 3 hour drive from Kigali to just past Musanze. When I was about to visit the headquarters of the Diane Master Gorilla Foundation, which is supported by the Houston Zoo, I noticed people walking and biking to local markets with goods. They balanced sacks of potatoes and trays of bananas on their heads and strapped tall sugarcane straddles on bicycles.

Every once in a while, I could see someone sweeping the shoulder of the road. There wasn’t even a leaf left. It seems that once a month, a national clean-up day is held in this country. It shows your effort. While we strive to keep Texas clear of chaos with our anti-littering campaign, Rwandans take personal responsibility for keeping their country clean.

We are already seeing that they are also responsible for protecting wildlife. The animals here are a source of income as tourists come from all over the world to see them. The biggest attraction is the mountain gorillas that live in a small area of ​​Volcanoes National Park. We will be visiting them on Monday, and this day was focused on learning about the efforts to save them.

At the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fosse Gorilla Foundation headquarters, we were greeted by Tara Stoinski, the organization’s leader. She is an American veterinarian turned CEO who works with a team in Rwanda to increase the number of gorillas in the wild.

She showed me a map of where the four African gorilla species live. The small dark blue dots on the map on the wall are where the mountain gorillas of Rwanda and Uganda live.

Since renowned conservationist Diane Master began working in the region, the mountain gorilla population has increased, making it one of the greatest conservation success stories. Although the illegal practice of poaching gorillas has disappeared, gorillas can sometimes get caught in traps set for other animals or become sick or injured in other ways. When that happens, he realizes that Master Diane’s Gorilla Foundation and a team of gorilla doctors (who he plans to meet on Sunday) are checking on the gorilla family daily, and calls for help for the animals.

We will highlight their important work in a one-hour documentary that will air in fall 2024. In that show, we meet Nadia Niyonizeye. She said she saw her movie “Gorillas in the Mist” in her youth and immediately knew she wanted to save gorillas like Master Diane. Now, she’s not only doing that through the Diane Master Gorilla Fund, but she’s also starting her own organization called Girls in Conservation, which trains young girls to become future conservation leaders.

To support the mission of women in conservation, the Houston Zoo donates to the Gorilla Fund to help make efforts like Niyonizei’s a reality.

Although the focus here is on gorillas, visitors to the Gorilla Foundation headquarters can also experience some type of bird scavenging. You can also get a sheet that identifies some of the most common birds in the area. I saw quite a few in the gardens of the complex.

We go to the gorilla doctor’s office on Sunday and go up the mountain to see the gorillas on Monday.See updates and more photos from our trip click2houston.com/conservation.

Watch the entire KPRC Save the Wildlife series, produced in partnership with the Houston Zoo