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| credit: Volcanoes Safaris |
Rangers and trackers looking for gorilla families missing from Congo's Virunga National Park have found four of the seven groups. Fighting between rebels and Congolese forces have prevented rangers from monitoring the endangered mountain gorillas. The resident gorillas have not been seen for 3 months, but eight teams spread throughout the forest with the approval of both sides and managed to find the Humba, Rugendo and Munyaga families and part of the Kabirizi family which apparently split. Innocent Mburanumwe, gorilla warden, said the gorillas were calm and curious when the searchers showed up. The warden said the gorillas greeted them by touching and smelling, always a good sign.
The Bukima Patrol Post from which the search was organized became part of the battleground between M23 rebels and the army. M23 currently controls the area. The Post was evacuated on May 8th, and has been damaged during the fighting with heavy weapons. It was the trailhead for tourists trekking to see the famous gorillas of Virunga. Because of the conflict all tourists activity has been closed since April 1st. Rangers will continue the search, conditions permitting, to locate the other gorillas. The forest of the Virunga Massif is home to about 200 mountain gorillas, 25% of the total remaining in the wild.
