Dr. Lucy Spelman has been working with Rwanda's Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) since Oct., 2006. She's agreed to give us a glimpse into the world of these highly endangered primates — she'll send regular multimedia dispatches from the field, getting you closer to wild gorillas than you've ever been before.

MGVP provides health care to endangered mountain gorillas in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The MGVP began at the request of the late anthropologist Dr. Dian Fossey. For 18 years Dr. Fossey studied the mountain gorillas' behavior, social interactions and environment in Rwanda 's Volcanoes National Park. Her studies indicated that the number of mountain gorillas was rapidly declining due to human-caused disease and injuries. By the mid-1980s, only 248 known mountain gorillas remained in the world. Dr. Fossey quickly changed her emphasis from behavior to preservation.