KVN: Gorilla Rewilding Sanctuary Appeal 1

Dear Phil,

The Gorilla Foundation is working together with the Aspinall Foundation in the UK to design and create a Gorilla Rewilding Adaptation Sanctuary (GRAS) within their protected million acre Congo reserve.

The Aspinall Foundation has already been incredibly successful at rewilding nearly 80 western lowland gorillas rescued as orphans in situ and also from their parks in the UK. Now it’s time to make room for other zoos to take advantage of the rewilding process for selected gorillas in need.

We’re calling it a Gorilla Rewilding Adaptation Sanctuary as it enables gorillas who arrive from zoos to take as long as necessary to adapt to their new (indigenous) surroundings, before either slowly transitioning to a free-living environment and being released into a protected reserve with other gorillas, or staying within a natural habitat that features perimeter fences, optional housing, state of the art veterinary care, and other gorillas — if they are unable to become completely free-living.

Shown above (and in the video) is the conceptual design of one feature of the sanctuary — the Gorilla Introduction (or “Howdy”) Portals, which connect two large habitats and allow gorillas from different families or groups on either side to be introduced to one another, at their own pace.

And shown below is another feature of the sanctuary — the Video Visitor Center, where staff, partners, and a small number of local visitors can monitor all operations, using video feeds collected by distributed cameras and caregivers, that can be selectively shared with millions of (virtual) internet visitors.

We currently need your help to fund the design and visualization efforts. Working with 2 world-class architects, one in the US and one in Africa, our guiding principle is to create the most gorilla-centric sanctuary we can imagine — with gorilla needs prioritized first (humans second).

Once we’ve completed the design, with your help, we will then have the necessary planning and visualization materials to begin an accelerated major donor fundraising campaign to construct the GRAS facility, and begin the migration of many more gorillas from captivity to freedom!

We thank you for your support on this new project that has the potential to improve many gorilla lives!

Conservation through Communication

The Gorilla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our Federal Tax ID is: 942-38-6151