Global personalities name baby gorillas in Rwanda

KINIGI, Rwanda, July 1 (Reuters) American actress Natalie Portman and other celebrities descended on a Rwandan wildlife park to name 23 baby mountain gorillas and help efforts to conserve the highly endangered species.

Of about 700 of the gorillas left in the world, just over half live around the lush Virunga volcanoes that straddle Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Decimated by conflict and poaching in the volatile region, numbers have begun creeping up again in recent years thanks to Rwandan conservation efforts.

The gorillas are a big-money tourist attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, but remain at risk from warring militias in DRC.

The celebrities got to tour the park yesterday and see the primates, but the babies live in the wild and were left alone, with children in costume standing in for them at the naming ceremony.

One baby gorilla was named ''Ingufu'' -- strength in the local Kinyarwanda dialect -- in honour of ''Crocodile Hunter'' Steve Irwin, a hugely popular wildlife documentary-maker killed by a stingray off his native Australia last year.

''We had been planning to come here for some years. We were going to come and do the mountain gorillas. But unfortunately that wasn't to be with the tragedy last year,'' Irwin's former manager John Stainton said at the ceremony in the foothills of the sanctuary.

''But having this honour to come and name a gorilla in honour of Steve Irwin takes away a sad memory. Steve would have been absolutely thrilled.'' Portman named her baby gorilla ''Ahazaza'' (future), while conservationist Jack Hanna chose ''Ibanga'' (secret) for his.

GORILLA TREKS The celebrities were invited to the ceremony to help raise awareness of efforts to ease the animals' plight and paid 500 dollar to come to the park, the standard fee for foreign tourists.

''This is one of the biggest conservation efforts in the world,'' Hanna told Reuters at the naming ceremony, the third such annual event Rwanda has staged.

Conservation workers and researchers traditionally name primates they track after identifying them based on the patterns formed by wrinkles on their face.

Rwanda, which is still recovering from the 1994 genocide when 800,000 people were hacked to death, is focussing on tourism as a means to generate foreign revenues.

The country earned over 36 million dollar from the tourism sector in 2006, but targets close to 100 million dollar by 2010.

''We have every good reason to celebrate the birth of these gorillas because the benefits they have brought to our country and people speak volumes,'' Rosette Rugamba, director general of the Rwanda tourism office, said at the ceremony.

Mountain gorillas were made famous by the movie ''Gorillas in the Mist'' about Dian Fossey, who studied them in Rwanda in the 1960s and documented her work in a book by the same name.

REUTERS SG VC0846