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Mountain Gorillas Slaughtered |
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Written by Smithsonian
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Friday, 24 August 2007 |
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State of Emergency
The slaughter of four endangered mountain gorillas in war-ravaged Congo sparks conservationist action
Three female mountain gorillas and one adult silverback were
fatally shot on the night of July 22 in Virunga National Park in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Last week, five-month-old Ndeze, the baby of one of the slain
females, was found by park rangers alive but badly dehydrated and
scared.
"It was clearly an incredible moment for everyone concerned," says
Robert Muir, project director for the Goma-based Frankfurt
Zoological Society's conservation program. "But also extremely sad
to see her so traumatized."
Watch a video about the threats facing Virunga's mountain
gorillas
Virunga National Park is home to roughly 150 of the world's
remaining 700 mountain gorillas, which have a high risk of
extinction due to habitat loss, poaching and war.
Ndeze was taken to Goma, where she will be monitored at the
Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, with hopes of returning her to
the wild.
Park rangers believe that the people responsible for the killings
are the same people linked to illegal charcoal production in the
park.
"They are trying to intimidate wildlife authorities into removing
the chief warden, Paulin Ngobobo," Muir says.
Ngobobo has tried to dismantle the illegal charcoal business for
the past year and in June received an international award for his
efforts, which rangers believe sparked the killings.
Rangers stationed at Virunga's Bukima camp first heard gun shots
the night of Sunday, July 22, and entered the forest Monday morning
to find three dead female gorillas: Safari, Neza and Mburanumwe.
The following day they found Senkwekwe, the male silverback. Two
other gorillas have been missing since the night of the
shootings.
The gorillas were part of a family that originally had 12
individuals but now only has five. The lack of females is a major
problem for the family's future, Ngobobo wrote on a blog on WildlifeDirect's Web site
after the killings.
"It is a disaster that has shaken the global conservation community
to its very foundations," Muir says. "We need to get on top of the
situation fast, before any more gorillas are killed."
This is not the first execution of its kind in Virunga National
Park, which spans the borders of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. Since the beginning of 2007, seven
gorillas—1 percent of their total population—have been found dead.
The gorillas are listed as critically endangered.
Most of the killings occur from poaching by militias, government
soldiers and villagers who rebel against the rangers protecting the
park. DRC is ravaged by civil war, which has killed an estimated 4
million people, including 125 park rangers, since its onset in
1994.
In reaction to the latest killings, the Institut Congolais pour la
Conservacion de la Nature, with funding from the Frankfurt
Zoological Society and conservation group WildlifeDirect, has
developed an emergency response plan.
The groups intend to organize gorilla-monitoring teams, set up
anti-poaching patrols and make communities and authorities aware of
the situation's magnitude.
"Our only hope now to save the gorillas lies in the success of the
emergency plan," Muir says. "With the right support from the
community and government, there is no reason we should not
succeed."
You can read more about DRC's mountain gorillas in the October
issue ofSmithsonian
magazine. |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 01 September 2007 )
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Thursday, 09 February 2012
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