Two good pieces of news for the mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A recent census carried out by park rangers shows that the gorilla numbers are up by 12.5% despite a civil war, poaching, and charcoal trade intruding into their habitat this past year. Emmanuel de Merode, Virunga National Park’s director, called the findings “a triumph for conservation”.
There are now an estimated 200 mountain gorillas living in Virunga National Park in the DRC. There is an estimated total of 720 mountain gorillas left in the world, the remainder live in Rwanda and Uganda. Most tourists go on gorilla safaris in the latter two countries.
And General Nkunda was arrested last week. Nkunda has been instrumental in destabilizing the region. His Tutsi rebel soldiers have been fighting Hutu rebels that escaped Rwanda after the bloody civil war in 1994. He is also one of the main suspects behind the gorilla slayings in 2007. However, it might be tricky for the Rwandan government to hold Mr Nkunda for long, he has had their tacit support for many years. This turn around is somewhat unexpected and who knows how it came about and what was agreed to behind the scenes.
Needless to say, right now, Nkunda’s arrest bodes well for the gorillas and the people living in this war torn region. The Rangers in Virunga can continue their daily routines of removing poachers snares (536 snares were found during the recent census taking), filming newborn gorillas and simply enjoying the results of their tremendous sacrifices to protect the gorillas. Over 150 rangers have been killed on duty in this park in the past decade. Many worked for years without receiving a salary. Check out the Virunga National Park blog for daily updates on new gorilla babies, community development initiatives and more.
Interesting Factoid: Rangers are able to identify individual gorillas because each animal’s nose is uniquely patterned. We have finger prints, gorillas have nose prints.
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