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In the baby gorilla orphanage in Virunga National Park

Ndakasi was just two months old when she was found, dehydrated, hungry and very frightened, still clinging to her mother’s back, killed by poachers. Ignite instead it is one of the cubs that survived the biggest gorilla extermination that took place in 2007 at Virunga National Park in Congo. In that massacre, which also ended up on the cover of Newsweek, seven adult gorillas were killed while Ndeze, tiny and defenseless, survived.

They were the first two mountain gorilla cubs welcomed at Senkwekwe Center, the only gorilla orphanage in the world, immersed in the lush African nature within the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Congo is not an easy Africa. Twenty years of wars between nations and bloody conflicts between local groups have exhausted an area of ​​incomparable beauty, with a unique biodiversity on planet Earth. Gorillas, elephants, monkeys and the splendid tropical forests are the soul and heart of this territory, but natural resources are disappearing due to real criminals of nature who eliminate protected animals, mercilessly kill the guards who protect them, destroy forests and illegally extract precious materials. And everything that is illegal somehow ends up financing armed conflicts.

In the heart of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the Virunga Park, the only site on earth where three types of great apes live: the mountain gorilla, the eastern lowland gorilla and the eastern chimpanzee. Lowland gorillas, in particular, are considered critically endangered, in danger of extinction, with a downward trend that led to the loss of 80% of the entire population, 60% disappeared over the last 20-25 years.

For this reason, each gorilla cub is a heritage to be saved and preserved. And for this the Senkwekwe Center, the structure for their reception and for the care necessary for their survival, is even more important. “At the beginning of 2009 – explains Nick a spokesperson for Virunga Park – the rangers regained control of the park after a long period of conflict. The orphans Ndeze and Ndakasi had been placed in safety in a tiny complex next to the polluted and noisy city of Goma, absolutely unsuitable to welcome them also due to the lack of vegetation. As soon as possible, therefore, it was decided to raise funds to build a small but welcoming structure a I stay, where the park is located. A lush forest was the perfect habitat for the traumatized little gorillas. ‘

A I am in Ndakasi in 2010 they joined The Goat is Life, they too survived poaching and wars. The first family of the Senkwekwe Center was born. “Maisha and Koboko came from Rwanda, where they lived in a small facility. The four gorillas settled down well and soon became a close-knit family. Unfortunately, both Koboko and Maisha are no longer with us, having died due to health complications“. There are currently four cubs in the African gorilla orphanage. «In 2018, we found Mazuka caught in a trap where she had been stuck for a few days. His foot was badly injured, infected and in need of amputation, despite the enormous efforts of our rangers and doctors. She now lives in the park sanctuary and has successfully integrated with her companions. At the end of 2013 it arrived Matabishi, found in a field just outside the park boundaries, probably abandoned by poachers who kept him tied with a rope, whose marks on his back could be recognized».

The quiet life pleases puppies. They wake up around six in the morning and, after breakfast, the day is spent playing and eating. They have a large garden available to live in nature but protected and safe from poaching that still wants them coveted prey for meat and trophies. «Around 5.00 pm it’s time for dinner: porridge fortified by probiotics and nutrients. Then it’s time to go to sleep: They are put to bed with a bunch of fresh leaves to build a nest. The leaves are of wild celery, also edible ».

The puppies, once grown, they remain in the orphanage for the rest of their lives, or are moved to sanctuaries. “One of the reasons gorillas can’t rejoin their old families is that they got too used to being with humans, to the privileges and the comfortable life in the enclosure – explains Nick – only the eastern lowland gorillas, the Grauer’s gorillas, who are saved from poaching and recovered in the orphanage by our Gorilla Doctors, remain for a fixed period and then are transferred to GRACE (Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education) ». In fact, once grown up, the mountain gorillas and those of the eastern lowland cannot continue to live in the same sanctuary. “They don’t do it in nature and so they can’t do it here either. This would involve problems with respect to daily life and the possibility that they mate with each other ».

—TO KNOW MORE’
The Virunga National Park is the first African national park born in 1925. Located in the heart of the Albertine Rift, between Uganda and Rwanda, it covers 7,800 square kilometers and consists of four sectors – northern, central, southern and lake sectors – each with an unparalleled diversity of landscapes and ecosystems.

It is located in a region that has been deeply affected by the effects of war and armed conflict for over 20 years, and today it protects the last remaining gorillas with epic courage. Since 2008, the Congolese Parks Authority and the Virunga Foundation have managed the park in partnership with a general development model for the territory. Alongside conservation work, the Park is committed to supporting local communities by creating a development model in which the presence of the Park can create new opportunities for the four million people who live on its borders. Hydropower, sustainable agriculture and fisheries and tourism are the three key areas to work on to economically transform the region, creating jobs and reducing poverty rates.

Virunga Park is defended by 689 rangers. Of these, just under 30 are women. Their training is identical: they come from the territory surrounding the park, undergo a long and intense physical and military training. Finally, when they are ready, they go out in groups that patrol the park day and night. Theirs is first of all a job of conserving the resources of this territory, but it often becomes a dangerous mission, in which risking one’s life is the order of the day. The struggle with armed groups who want to continue exploiting the natural resources of this still unspoiled corner of the world, including coal mining, is daily and increasingly dangerous. As well as the fight against poaching, which continues to increase despite information campaigns. In January 2021, with the killing of six rangers during a control action, the sad record of 200 men and women killed since the foundation of the park was reached. Without their work and their complete dedication to the cause, Virunga National Park would not exist.

Support the park’s activities and its efforts to create a new model for the future it is important to each of us. In addition to visiting the park (when you can), you can make direct donations, you can support his programs, buy a photo in the dedicated shop, t-shirts and sweatshirts, The “Adopt” a small gorilla.

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