Nimetafuta linki yao Facebook lakini sikuiona. Lakini naona ni wazo zuri. Na Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) waige. Waruhusu watu wasioweza kusafiri kwenda kutalii kwenye mbuga za wanyama wawe marafiki wa Simba, Twiga, Nyoka, Mamba, Nyati, Ngedere wetu.
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By GODFREY OLUKYA
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - He's hairy, his table manners are atrocious, and he wants to be your friend on Facebook.
No, it's not the ex-boyfriend. It's Muhozi, an endangered Ugandan mountain gorilla, who's appearing online as part of a fundraising program the Ugandan Wildlife Authority is launching Saturday to help save the species.
Around 340 mountain gorillas - nearly half of the 740 remaining worldwide - live in Uganda's lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. The rest live in the Virunga mountain range, which stretches from Uganda into Rwanda and the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite their size - a male silverback can reach over 7 feet (2.1 meters) and weigh 400 pounds (180 kilogram) - the gorillas are threatened by poachers who kill them for meat, farmers and charcoal-burners who encroach on their habitat, and the indiscriminate bullets of rebels on the run. They must be protected by rangers with automatic rifles.
The Wildlife Authority is hoping that fans will befriend a gorilla on Facebook or MySpace or follow it on Twitter in return for a minimum donation of a dollar. The money will be used to hire extra rangers to protect the gorillas and safeguard their habitat.
In return, gorilla friends will receive regular updates about their chosen gorilla, be able to track their progress through global positioning systems, have their gorilla's picture on their home page and receive gorilla trivia - like the fact that the name is derived from a Greek word, gorillai, meaning 'hairy women.'
Wildlife Authority spokeswoman Lilian Nsubuga said she hoped the program would give people who could not afford to travel to Uganda themselves the chance to feel closer to the animals. About 10,500 tourists visit Uganda each year to see the gorillas. An entry permit for the park is $500 per person. Last year Uganda earned $600 million through tourism and over 90 percent of the money was from gorilla tourism.
"The (gorillas) are also very similar to human beings. That's what makes many people want to look at them," Nsubuga said.
Thomas Slater, the director of the gorilla website, said internet users would be able to befriend any individual from one of seven groups habituated to human contacts.
"You will be able to learn more concerning the particular gorilla, its character, family and relationships," he said.
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Showing posts with label Gorilla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gorilla. Show all posts
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
Aina Mpya ya UKIMWI
Leo kuna habari kuwa kuna aina mpya ya UKIMWI (HIV/AIDS). Unaitwa RBF 168. Wanasema kuwa imetoka kwa sokwe. Mama fulani kutoka Cameroon ambaye kahamia Ufaransa amekutwa nayo. Wanasayansi wanasema binadamu wameambukizwa hivyo virusi na sokwe. Mbona hao wanasayansi wanapenda sana kusema waafrika wanatembea na nyani na sokwe! Unakumbuka miaka ya 80, walidai kuwa eti waafrika walikuwa na mchezo wa kutembea na green monkey, na wao ndo chanzo cha UKIMWI. Hivi kweli waafrika wanapenda kufanya ngono na nyani na sokwe! Khaa!
Kwa sasa huyo mama mwenye miaka 62, hajaanza kuonyesha dalili yoyote ya kuumwa.
Wakati huo huo, kuna habari kuwa waCanada wamegundua chanjo ya UKMWI.
Mnaweza kusoma habari ya chanjo HAPA.
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Kutoka CNN.Com
Researchers Identify new strain of HIV Derived from Gorillas
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French researchers have identified a new human immunodeficiency virus, the first derived from gorillas, a report said Monday.
A new virus is difficult to detect by tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants.
The three previous HIV variants came from chimpanzees. The new findings indicate that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV, the researchers concluded in a report published in the weekly Nature Medicine journal.
PARIS, France (CNN) -- French researchers have identified a new human immunodeficiency virus, the first derived from gorillas, a report said Monday.
A new virus is difficult to detect by tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants.
The three previous HIV variants came from chimpanzees. The new findings indicate that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV, the researchers concluded in a report published in the weekly Nature Medicine journal.
The new virus, called RBF 168, was detected in a 62-year-old woman who moved to Paris from the western Africa nation of Cameroon, the report says. She tested positive for HIV in 2004, and researchers led by Jean-Christophe Plantier identified the virus as being closely related to a recently discovered simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
The new gorilla virus "has many of the biological properties necessary for human infection," the report says.
"The human case described here does not seem to be an isolated incident, as before coming to Paris the subject had lived in the semiurban area of Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, and reported no contact with apes or bush meat," the researchers said.
That would indicate that the woman contracted the virus from another human.
The virus is difficult to detect by conventional tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants.
That would indicate that the woman contracted the virus from another human.
The virus is difficult to detect by conventional tests because it is not closely related to the other three HIV variants.
"This demonstrates that HIV evolution is an ongoing process," co-researcher David Robertson of the University of Manchester said in a release. "The virus can jump from species to species, from primate to primate, and that includes us; pathogens have been with us for millions of years and routinely switch host species."
HIV can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which attacks the body's immune system, giving rise to lethal infections. Patients diagnosed with HIV can take medications to delay or stop HIV from developing into AIDS. There are 33 million confirmed cases of AIDS worldwide.
The unnamed woman has no signs of AIDS and remains untreated, Nature Medicine said.
The most likely explanation for the emergence of the new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission, though researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the chimpanzee SIV gave rise to the new strain "either indirectly by transmission to gorillas and then to humans or directly by transmission to humans and also to gorillas."
The most likely explanation for the emergence of the new virus is gorilla-to-human transmission, though researchers say they cannot rule out the possibility that the chimpanzee SIV gave rise to the new strain "either indirectly by transmission to gorillas and then to humans or directly by transmission to humans and also to gorillas."
Researchers said they don't know how widespread the virus is among humans.
"The human prevalence of this new lineage remains to be determined," the report says, adding that "it could be circulating unnoticed in Cameroon or elsewhere."
Western Central Africa bears close watching, the researchers suggest.
"In conclusion, our findings indicate that gorillas, in addition to chimpanzees, are likely sources of HIV-1," the report states. "The discovery of this novel HIV-1 lineage highlights the continuing need to watch closely for the emergence of new HIV variants, particularly in western central Africa, the origin of all existing HIV-1 groups."
Co-researcher Robertson noted that the new virus may not be restricted to Africa.
"It also highlights how human mobility can rapidly transfer a virus from one geographical location to another as has been dramatically evident with the recent emergence of swine flu," he said.
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