Respiratory Illness Outbreak in Mountain Gorillas
Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
December 25, 2025 saw the beginnings of respiratory illness in some of the gorillas in Kwitonda group. Over the next few days, the respiratory illness spread through the group with some gorillas showing more severe clinical signs than others.
On December 28, trackers reported to Gorilla Doctors that silverback Karevuro was lethargic and lagging behind the group, not rising from his night nest until 9:30am that morning. He had been experiencing a mild cough since Christmas Day but nothing that impacted his activity levels.
Karevuro has a known history of recurrent respiratory infections, often requiring medical intervention for recovery. His most recent treatment occurred in March 2025, during a group-wide respiratory outbreak confirmed to be caused by Human Metapneumovirus.
The next morning, trackers quickly realized that Karevuro was not with his group, which had moved nearly 300 meters away to feed. They found Karevuro still in his night nest. While we mobilized to the park for an assessment and possible intervention, Karevuro left his nest, feeding briefly but not joining his group. We arrived around 10:45am to observe Karevuro having moved only a short distance with signs of lethargy, nasal discharge, mild cough, and minimal feeding.
After discussion with the team, we made a clinical decision to provide supportive treatment to Karevuro providing antibiotics and anti-inflammatories via remote injection. We successfully delivered the medication with two separate darts into his back shoulder muscles.