gorilla.cd

There were a number of important questions over the issue of an aircraft for Virunga. I think it’s impossible to manage a park as big and as complicated as Virunga without adequate aerial support. There are three main areas where we need an aircraft: for surveillance, medical evacuations and for logistics.

Surveillance is becoming increasingly important as the pressures on the park and on the rangers increase. This is for all sorts of reasons. Of course, the primary purpose is to get law enforcement teams in place rapidly when we find poachers. Our main aim is to prevent poaching, so we need to try to find the poachers before they kill an animal. With regular surveillance flights, we can often spot the poachers fires, even if they’re in the forest. Poachers know that they have a much greater chance of being detected and this acts as a very important deterrent, ultimately helping us to ensure that poachers give up even trying to enter the park. The same is true for the charcoal fire.

Virunga is 7,800 square kilometres of park - much of it inaccessible by road

Read the full story »

Over the past month we have suffered a growing number of very serious poaching incidents across the central savannas of the park. These killings have affected the elephant population (which has declined by 90% in the past twenty years) the buffaloes, and more recently lions, which are critically endangered in eastern Africa. We have had 5 elephant killings in the last four days.

A lionness killed and eaten by soldiers a few months ago

Read the full story »

Check out the story on the CNN website: Central African Gorillas May Go Extinct.

It refers to a recent report by UNEP, the United Nations Environment Program, that states that gorillas may go extinct in much of Central Africa by the mid-2020s - victims of the meat trade, logging, mining and the Ebola virus. Read the full story »

A Congolese soldier has been killed in Virunga National Park by a lioness after he reportedly tried stealing her two cubs. The incident took place near Katanda, which is in the savannah region of Virunga just south of Lake Edward (and south east of Rwindi). Another soldier was also injured.

A lion in Virunga. Lions in Virunga are just starting to make a comeback, after having been decimated during the civil war.

Read the full story »

Silvestre Mburanumwe, Innocent’s father, has passed away. His funeral was held yesterday at his home in Rutshuru, just north of Rumangabo. Silvestre had been a Ranger since 1968 - 42 years of service to the Congolese Wildlife Authority and 42 years of dedication to the protection of Virunga and its wildlife.

Emmanuel, Innocent and Norbert pay their respects yesterday.

Read the full story »

For $25/month you can protect a 30-acre plot of Virunga National Park - home to the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla.

With your monthly contribution the Rangers will be funded to keep the area free from snares, and prevent another gorilla death. Click on the picture link below to find out more.

At the moment 79 plots are protected, representing a total of 2,391 acres.

BUT WE NEED TO PROTECT ALL OF THE GORILLA SECTOR - this is 250km2 or 61,750 acres.

So right now we are protecting, through this scheme, less than 5 percent of the Gorilla Sector. Please help us.

Read the full story »

In the early hours of this morning a villager near the Gorilla Sector (near Bukima) was killed by a forest elephant. The elephant was trying to steal potatoes from the fields, and the villager was trying to scare him away. Innocent tells me that the man was hit with the trunk of the elephant and fell to the ground and died.

The villager was with 2 other men who were sitting in their field next to the Gorilla Sector at about 4am in case elephants came to steal the crops. We know - and we have talked about this many times - that elephants, buffaloes and gorillas all leave the confines of Virunga National Park to crop raid.

Read the full story »

I have received reports from Rangers at the Gatovu patrol post in the Gorilla Sector that Buhanga, one of Virunga’s 6 Solitary Silverbacks, is sick.

Read the full story »

Ndeze & Ndakasi continue to thrive in their new forest home, the Senkwekwe Centre. Here is some video footage shot by Andre on a Handycam and edited by Katya. Already it seems as if their life in noisy Goma never happened. It is all strangely serene and natural.

Upload this to Facebook

We need your grant to publish this video to your Facebook profile.

Video Published

An error occurs - Try later...

This video is too long to be uploaded to Facebook.

This may take some time...

Read the full story »

One of Africa’s most active volcanoes, the Nyiragongo volcano situated in Virunga National Park some 25 kilometers north of the city of Goma, is now open to tourism.

This is the quasi-permanent lava lake in the crater of the Nyiragongo.

Read the full story »