Dr. Gladys Kalema Zikusoka is one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the critically endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa as well as a powerful speaker about the interconnectedness of all species and the human links to our most endangered wildlife.
She was Uganda’s first woman to be the country’s wildlife veterinary officer. She won the Whitley Gold Award for her conservation work in 2009. Dr Gladys has also been featured in documentaries on BBC 1, National Geographic, Animal Planet, MNet and Uganda Television.
Dr Gladys is linking Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources that benefit both people and animals. She has one mission in mind; to improve African public health to save the gorillas from human-borne illnesses.
Gorillas and humans have a 98 percent genetic resemblance, making transmission of diseases between the species highly probable.
These majestic creatures are under siege by poachers, loss of habitat and warfare and a more serious threat discovered by Dr Gladys was that there is transmission of human diseases to gorillas called zoonotic transmission afflictions ranging from tuberculosis to scabies. She found gorillas visited by tourists had a higher parasite rate than those not visited, implying that tourism can have a negative impact on mountain gorillas health.
In Bwindi Impenetrable Park this is especially likely as the forest has a hard edge.
As a new vet graduate, Dr Gladys was made chief veterinary officer of the Ugandan Wildlife Service. She set about restocking her country’s national parks with giraffes and lions following years of civil war, but it was the endangered mountain gorillas that really captured Gladys’ heart.
She set up the first Veterinary Unit in the Uganda Wildlife Authority pioneering the first wildlife translocations in her country since the 1970s and developed the first community education campaigns on risks of humans and gorilla disease transmission among others.
“To keep the gorillas healthy, the human population must be healthy. We set up CTPH to provide healthcare to the local communities to try and keep the park healthy,” said Dr Gladys in an interview with The Geographical.
“We help create volunteer networks that educate and encourage locals to maintain their health and hygiene. Meanwhile, we engage with traditional healers, who are locally respected, to help to refer likely HIV and TB patients,” she added.
The 40-year-old doctor, trained at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College, has won accolades from Africa to the U.S.
In 2008, she was honored with the San Diego Zoos Conservation in Action Award and was among eight women given an award for outstanding contribution towards tourism development and women empowerment in 2007.
She was the recipient of the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship in 2006.
Watch her full interview
