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Happy New Year to you all from all of us - the RANGERS OF VIRUNGA.

May 2009 bring you much joy, love and happiness.

Furaha kwa mwaka mupya wa elfu mbili na tisa 2009! Read the full story »

More good news before the end of 2008!

We have located and identified each individual in the Mapuwa family - and there are now 14 individuals, up from 12 during the August 2007 census. Read the full story »

Another great piece of news for you all! We have just seen and identified Lulengo and his family. You may remember that Lulengo, the Silverback, was last seen in August 2007 during the census and that at that time the family had 4 individuals, including Lulengo himself. He had managed to obtain a family after fighting with Pili-Pili, who of course is now in the Rugendo Family. Before August 2007 Lulengo had been missing since January 2007… Read the full story »

Happy Holidays from all the team in Virunga.

Thank you for your invaluable support during 2008 - in reading the blog, leaving comments, raising awareness, and making donations. We are a team of about 700 people who keep Virunga going, including all the Rangers in the park. Thank you from each and every one of us. Read the full story »

Two of the young gorillas in the Humba family are especially close: Mahindure and Matembela were born only one week apart in January 2002. The two young males have grown up together and spend a lot of time playing and testing each other out. Here in this video you can see them wrestling- we watched them do this for more than 30 minutes, after which they were happily exhausted:

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We have talked about Ranger Yaya several times now on the blog - the Ranger who used to be a poacher and also make charcoal in the park. He is now one of the key members of the team conducting the Gorilla Census and is a very valuable asset. He is also a fast learner and is rapidly becoming adept at identifying gorillas by their noseprints, which as you know can be quite challenging at times. Read the full story »

Mountain gorillas are not pure vegetarians. We often find ant nests in the forest that have been ripped apart. The gorillas eat the ants and their eggs, which are full of protein and an important supplement to their diet.

Yesterday Ranger Sekibibi found the Kabirizi group eating ants and filmed them. The ants bite the gorillas, so they take turns taking hand fulls and run away while eating quickly:

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We are taking a lot of pictures in order to identify gorillas and have records of their noseprints. Some of the pictures turn out to be good portraits- here are some from the Kabirizi family: Read the full story »

We have some excellent news. We have finally seen the Rugendo Family, our most habituated group of gorillas in Congo, but also the most traumatized after the July 2007 massacre. Read the full story »

There is a big tree in the forest not far from Bukima that is perfect for climbing. It has big vines dropping down from its branches to the ground. The other day we were following the Kabirizi group when they passed this particular tree. The youngsters in the group, including Kanyalire, Kitagenda, and Masibo, couldn’t resist having some fun, as you can see from the video Diddy filmed:

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