Baby Gorillas in The Mist

"A friend and I just saw the movie, Gorillas in the Mist, and I am now obsessed with mountain gorillas. I was reading up on them and briefly saw a mention of a gorilla naming ceremony. Is this true? Is there really a ceremony that names gorillas?" -Tyler, Sandusky, OH, U.S.A.

Your eyes were not deceiving you. There is, indeed, a ceremony for naming mountain gorillas and it is called Kwita Izina. The most recent Kwita Izina (which literally means 'to give a name' in Kinyarwanda, the mother tongue of Rwanda) was held in Kinigi, Musanze District, Northern Province, at the foot of the Virunga Mountains on June 5, 2010.  Interestingly, the ceremony is a centuries-old tradition yet it was not made public until 2005 with the very conscious effort of bringing attention to the success of mountain gorilla conservation.

Inspired by the Rwandan tradition of naming babies, the ceremony's main goal is to personalize mountain gorillas to the global public (names are selected via a lottery by the park wardens, as they know the characteristics of the ones being named best) and to better monitor and track the gorillas and their troops. The idea worked: since the ceremony has gone global, mountain gorilla poaching in Rwanda has decreased while the number of gorillas being born and surviving has increased.

Over the past few years, the ceremony has become a major wildlife lover and tourist draw: thousands of people, both every day and famous (Academy Award © nominated actors Natalie Portman and Don Cheadle have attended), from all over the world come to Rwanda to share in the excitement.  The ceremony is of great celebration in Rwanda, with the actual ceremony being proceeded by two weeks of national festivities (including a two-day cycling event), that coincides with another great event: National Environment Week which leads up to World Environment Day (WED).

This year, Rwanda was the proud first-time host of this internationally recognized day, coincidentally falling on the same day as the Kwita Izina ceremony. Double the fun! For the past 16 years, the people of Rwanda have been dedicating a week leading up to WED - doing what they can to be active agents in protecting the environment. The week annually runs from May 31st through June 5th and is kicked off with the people of Rwanda doing community work, known as 'Umuganda.'  People all over the country are encouraged to do environmental activities in conjunction with the year's theme of WED.

This year, the theme was 'Many Species, One Planet, One Future.' This year, 14 baby mountain gorillas were honored at Kwita Izina. Since the ceremony's 2005 public debut, approximately 103 mountain gorillas have been named.

Did You Know…?

• Rwanda is known as 'The Land of A Thousand Hills'
• Although Kinyarwanda is the 'mother tongue,' Rwanda also has two other official languages: French and English
• Although located close to the equator, much of Rwanda is relatively cool year long due to its high elevation.
• The Virunga Mountains and the nearby Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda are the only places in the world where mountain gorillas can be found.
• AWF's own V.P. of Philanthropy (and official 'gorilla guru'), Craig  Sholley, worked with Dian Fossey in Rwanda in the 1970's and was a key figure directing the Mountain Gorilla Project in the late 1980s.  Thereafter, Craig worked as Scientific Advisor on the award-winning IMAX film, Mountain Gorilla.