SIX Hollywood stars arrived in the country yesterday for the launch of Uganda’s Friend-A-Gorilla campaign, spearheaded by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). The campaign is part of global efforts to save the endangered mountain gorillas, the majority of which live in Uganda. The stars who jetted in yesterday include Jason Matthew Biggs, best known for his role in the American Pie, a high school three-parts comedy. Also part of the group is Kristyn Wu, an American actress of Chinese descent, known for her role as Chao-Ahn in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-starring as Melissa Wu in Flight 29 Down. Others who will take part in the launch are Simon Curtis, Rachel McDonald, Matthew Kurte and Tertius Bune. The film stars will track the largest group of 36 gorillas, called Nshongi, at Rushaga in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. UWA officials believe that the campaign will help promote Uganda as a top tourism destination as the world celebrates the UN International Year of the Gorilla. Bwindi’s tourism attraction was recently documented by researcher Mark Penning, the President of the World Association of Zoos and one of the supporters of the campaign. Penning had an amazing encounter with one of the gorillas, called Muyambi, who unexpectedly put his arm around him. “I sat down to watch him, very conscious of the fact that one should keep a distance of 5 to 7 metres so as not to put the animals at risk of catching colds and flu,” he narrated his experience. “Muyambi had other ideas and casually walked over to me. I thought he would walk past me but he sat next to me and put his arm around me. With his hand resting on my shoulder, he looked right into my eyes from just centimetres away.” UWA’s director of conservation, Sam Mwandha, explained that the young gorillas are cheeky and tend to move close to the trackers.
No comments:
Post a Comment