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Vet Tech student interns in Rwanda with one of world's most endangered populations - Mountain Gorillas
 Barb DeLorme, with "Fearless," an orphaned Eastern Lowland Gorilla at MGVP, who DeLorme described as "like a two-year-old on steroids. He loved to bite and I have the bruises to prove it!" She recently returned from one of those vacations, where she was able to combine three weeks working with her Columbus Zoo-based Partners In Conservation group, with two additional weeks as an intern at the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The internship satisfied a portion of the required curriculum in her studies at Columbus State in the Veterinary Tech program. You see, Barb is planning ahead for her retirement. Although she has worked for Nationwide for 28 years, she has also been involved with Partners In Conservation (PIC) for 15 years. She co-founded the group in 1991 with two other docents and a keeper from the Columbus Zoo. DeLorme plans to "retire" into a whole new career working in animal psychology, cognitive research and behavioral studies of non-human primates. Earning a degree in Veterinary Technology satisfies the technical and veterinary aspects of her retirement plan; she hopes to complete an independent studies degree in animal psychology at Ohio State in the future. The Vet Tech program at Columbus State has a rigorous internship requirement, and DeLorme was able to fulfill one portion of that requirement by returning to the country she has visited several times before. She worked with Dr. Chris Whittier of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project doing everything from helping with an orphaned infant lowland gorilla named Fearless, to learning how to dart an animal with tranquilizers, to cataloging bones. "They had really gotten behind on cataloging the bones," laughed DeLorme. "I was also able to help them do a complete drug inventory at the project, and did a lot of laboratory blood work on samples they brought back from the field." The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project provides field veterinary care for the remaining 380 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda and Congo. DeLorme's group, Partners in Conservation, helps provide health care screenings and preventive medical programs for 158 native trackers and park guards who work in this region. By helping the human populations working in the regions of these highly endangered gorilla populations, PIC helps protect the gorillas from contracting human diseases. Partners in Conservation also helps fund salaries, field equipment, vehicles and construction for employees of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International in Rwanda. The late Dian Fossey founded the organization in 1967 to study and protect the endangered mountain gorillas. DeLorme had an encouraging report on the status of the rarest of gorilla subspecies. "They are really doing very well right now," she said. "They are not being poached, and the country is much more politically stable than in the past. Much of their habitat is protected, and the genetic makeup of the population is fairly diverse. I believe there are actually more than the 380 individuals known. I think there are more wild ones that cross the borders between three countries," she said. While in Rwanda during her last trip she was able to go up in the mountains on an official tracking expedition with her husband, a friend, and a Rwandan tracker, guide and military escort. Such expeditions are still quite dangerous, hence the military escort. Now that Barb DeLorme is home from Africa, she's looking excitedly to her next internship, at Ohio State with famed animal behaviorist Dr. Sally Boysen. There, she hopes to gain experience working with the chimpanzees that Boysen has studied for many years to great acclaim. "I'm actually a little worried," says DeLorme. "I only speak gorilla. I need to be very careful because there is a totally different language with the chimps. I'd hate to say the wrong thing!" Back to Columbus State Community College Home Page
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