Tracking Gladys Kalema Zikusoka’s passion for mountain gorillas

One can hardly talk about mountain gorillas in Uganda without hearing Dr Gladys Kalema Zikusoka’s name at least once.

At 55, the wildlife veterinarian is as synonymous with gorilla welfare and research as Jane Goodall is with chimpanzees. Zikusoka admits that her job still baffles many, and during the launch of her book Walking with Gorillas, which was hosted by Dr Achilles Byaruhanga, the head of Nature Uganda, she heard similar sentiments about her career path.

The Observer met Dr Zikusoka in Entebbe over coffee, where she talked at length over her passion – wildlife, especially mountain gorillas – and how her dream to be a wildlife vet started in the leafy suburb of Nakasero.

In Nakasero, where she grew up as the lastborn in a family of six children to veteran politician and legislator Rhoda Kalema, she often found herself in the company of animals, which fanned embers of her future profession. By then her father William Kalema had been abducted and killed during the Idi Amin regime.

“I was the lastborn, and with such a big age gap between my siblings and me, my elder brother used to bring stray dogs and cats home, and I found companionship. Watching them suffer broke my heart, and when they were sick, I would go with my mum to the vet to treat them, and that’s when I knew I wanted to become a vet,” Zikusoka recalls.

For Zikusoka, even during her early days of school, she had one goal: animal welfare. She recalls her days at Kibuli Secondary School, where she revived the wildlife club and organized a trip to Queen Elizabeth national park in 1989, at a time when wildlife and tourism were not flourishing due to widespread poaching and insecurity.

The poaching and insecurity had made wild animals move to neighbouring DR Congo. With the few animals left in the national park, the warden at Queen Elizabeth allowed Zikusoka and her classmates from Kibuli to take a safari walk in the park.

“It was such an exciting experience, taking the train, arriving at the park, and looking after all those children. But when the warden told us we could actually do a walking safari because there was so little wildlife left, it made me feel a little bit sad.”

That was the epiphany for Zikusoka; she wanted to protect animals and help bring them back to the pearl of Africa. Zikusoka applied to study veterinary medicine at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1991, and “during the holidays, the university encouraged us to work with a practicing vet doctor and work with animals of one’s choice in a space of 17 weeks”.

“So, when I came home during the Christmas holidays, I got a chance to work with wildlife. I worked in the Entebbe zoo for one week, looking after chimpanzees. In those days, the zoo was more like an orphanage. They just took in any animals confiscated from the community,” she says.

FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH ANIMALS IN THE WILD

The revered vet who is married to Lawrence Zikusoka, with whom she shares two children, said chimpanzees were back then the most trafficked animals; female chimpanzees were hunted for meat in DRC, leaving their babies orphaned, and well-wishers would bring them to the zoo, which was supported by the Jane Goodall Institute at the time.

She remembers how the chimps aged between two and four years often escaped from their cages when no one was watching.

“They would pry open the wired cage, dash out playfully, and then wait to be carried back, craving the comfort they once received from their mothers. It became a daily game, revealing both their intelligence and their deep emotional need for affection and connection.”

INTRODUCTION TO MOUNTAIN GORILLAS

Her real life-changing moment, however, came in 1994 when she got an opportunity to work with mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park, following the habituation of the first gorilla families in 1993.

To habituate a gorilla family, rangers spend a few hours a day for several months in close proximity with the gorillas, without directly interfering with their lives, until they become comfortable enough with humans.

“At that time, only two gorilla groups were available for visitation, with six tourists allowed per group per day, each paying $250 [it is now $700]. I spent a month doing parasitology studies, and we found some parasites in the faecal samples of mountain gorillas when I was stationed at a tourist site in Bwindi. I also witnessed firsthand how tourism was positively impacting the nearby communities. Tourists would often invite me for tea and ask about my work,” she remembers.

That fieldwork experience with mountain gorillas in Bwindi shaped her career in conservation medicine. It was during this time that she wrote a report about the need for wildlife veneration, which she sent to Dr Eric Edroma, the then executive director of Uganda Wildlife Authority, who had given her permission to study the gentle giants with Dr Liz McPhee who headed the International Gorilla Conservation Programme.

“When I sent my report to Dr Edroma, I remember that he replied to me saying, ‘Your job as a wildlife vet is waiting for you’.

I remember I told my classmates I was studying with at Royal Veterinary College and they were happy for me because it was hard to get such a job anywhere in the world.”

WORKING WITH UGANDA WILDLIFE AUTHORITY

In 1996, Zikusoka joined Uganda Wildlife Authority after her bachelor’s degree and realized there was no veterinarian at UWA, and no budget for one, either.

“The general perception was that vet doctors simply sat at desks writing policy documents. But I insisted, ‘No, I have to be in the field treating wildlife’.”

The UWA executive director then, Dr Edroma, was an exceptional mentor who encouraged Zikusoka to write letters to fundraise for the veterinary department through potential donors.

“He was incredibly supportive and wanted things to work, despite the extremely limited resources at the time. Back then, there was hardly any money for tourism. Only two gorilla groups were open for visitation [compared to 19 families today], and tourists weren’t coming to other parks. Salaries were minimal, and yet everyone kept going because they truly cared about wildlife. It was not like today where people are drawn in by high salaries – at that time, we were there out of passion and dedication,” Zikusooka says.

Working with UWA was an interesting period for the young vet; she remembers her small desk, which she shared with the internal auditor, where she spent time writing proposals and reaching out to contacts she had in the UK.

Soon, help started coming in; one organization sent aid in form of a second-hand vehicle from Kenya, an Apple computer, and darting equipment, which laid the groundwork for the beginning of real field wildlife veterinary work.

TREATING UGANDA’S WILDLIFE

Dr Zikusoka recalls her first experience treating wildlife, when Captain John Otekat, the then deputy director, mentioned how giraffes in Murchison Falls national park had a skin disease.

“I volunteered to go. Captain Otekat warned me that it was dangerous because of the presence of Kony rebels, but I insisted [that year, 1996, the rebels had murdered culinary educationist Jimmy Ssekasi and several of his students in the park]. At the time, Professor Vernon Reynolds was heading to Budongo, which is on the way to Murchison, so I suggested that he could take me to Budongo and then arrange for someone else to pick me up and continue to Murchison.”

When she got to Murchison Falls, she examined the giraffes and took samples, which helped her discover the skin disease was not due to an infection but, rather, due to an ecological imbalance that caused flies to lay eggs on the giraffe’s skin.

After successfully treating the giraffes and surviving Kony, Zikusoka was soon informed about some gorillas losing their hair and developing a white scaly skin.

“I consulted my friend, Dr Catherine Ssozi, a UK-trained medical doctor, who suggested it might be scabies, a common disease in low-income rural communities often linked to poor hygiene. Since Ivermectin is the standard treatment, I bought some along with other medications before embarking on the 10-hour journey. I travelled with Dr Richard, a Kenyan vet who had helped establish Kenya Wildlife Service’s veterinary unit and had seen scabies in cheetahs in Maasai Mara.”

The affected gorilla group only had four members with some having crossed into the DRC. “Dr Richard had experience with darting animals and helped dart the sick gorilla and I later joined Dr Richard in taking samples from the gorillas, hence treating the scabies,” she recalls.

She says working with these intelligent primates taught her how vital behaviour is in wildlife veterinary care. Zikusoka’s effort in treating Uganda’s wildlife made people realize the value of a wildlife vet even during times when UWA started to experience financial difficulties and considered laying off staff.

“A financial advisor from the USA suggested terminating my position, arguing that during budget cuts, specialized or international roles like mine are usually the first to go. My name was placed on the list of those to be laid off. I explained to him that I had just saved UWA nearly $1 million by treating a group of habituated gorillas suffering from scabies, and each group generates about that amount annually through tourism. It changed his mind. I kept my job, and it became clear to many how vital veterinary work is to conservation.”

After four years with UWA (1996 to 2000), it was time to move on.

“I left UWA in 2000 to pursue a zoo medicine residency in the USA. I gave three months’ notice to UWA and urged them to hire someone for me to train, but they didn’t act. After I left, my former boss called, saying the gorillas and giraffes were sick again, and asked me to return. I declined. I had given them ample time to prepare. I recommended a wildlife vet called Joseph Okori to help UWA treat the sick animals,” Zikusoka says.

MASTERS IN THE USA AND STARTING CTPH

After her time at UWA, she moved on to study for her Master’s in Specialized Vet Medicine from North Carolina University. It was during her time in the USA that she met Lawrence Zikusoka at a cousin’s wedding in 1998 and they would later marry in 2001.

It is also in the USA that she studied for a certificate in non-profit management at Duke University, as she planned to set up a non-profit organization called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), formed in 2003 with her husband and Stephen Rubanga.

CTPH marked a major shift in how Zikusoka approached conservation; they were able to establish a field office in Bwindi, which allowed further study into mountain gorillas.

Additionally, CTPH set up a gorilla research clinic and later a permanent Gorilla Health and Community Conservation Centre, and also introduced coffee farming to improve livelihoods, helping former poachers coexist peacefully with gorillas.

Zikusoka talks proudly about her two sons, Ndhego and Tendo, and noted that she was happy that God gave her Lawrence, who has supported her work.

“Our children have grown up in parks our son Ndhego first visited Bwindi at four months old.”

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