Ugandan mountain gorillas

A television vet has won an award from a charity backed by David Attenborough for her work rescuing mountain gorillas in Uganda. watch the video here.. Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is already known to many UK and US television viewers through her appearances in the BBC documentaries Vets in the Wild and Gladys the African vet. She won the £60,000 Whitley Gold prize for the health and conservation project she is running in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, northern Uganda – one of the last strongholds of endangered mountain gorillas. The project is not only treating sick gorillas but reducing the risk of cross-infection risks between apes and people, while allowing villagers to benefit from increased gorilla tourism. Grassroots conservation groups in six other countries also won cash awards including a project to protect elephants while working with rice farmers in Sri Lanka, encouraging more sustainable methods of agriculture in Kenya and protecting migratory birds in Bulgaria. Edward Whitley, the founder of the award, said: "The DNA of people and gorillas is so similar that many diseases cross readily between them. With her work, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is not only reducing the risk of gorillas falling prey to human ailments but she is also improving the lives of local people, by offering them better healthcare, greater knowledge of their gorilla neighbours and more opportunities to benefit from gorilla tourism without harm to the apes." i grew up addicted to david attenborough wildlife programmes, especially Life on Earth - and having visited the gorillas at Bwindi last year, this is close to my heart.