Suspect Detained for Involvement in Gorilla Shooting

Wildlife authorities and conservation partners have held a series of emergency meetings to address last week's shooting of four endangered mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Two suspects have been identified as persons involved in the killing of the four gorillas, all members of the Rugendo group. The men were seen early on July 23rd at the scene where the gorillas were shot dead. One of the men has been arrested and is cooperating with the investigation, but the second man is still at large. The names of the two suspects have not been released.

One of the surviving members of the Rugendo group, the baby Ndezi (whose mother Safari was killed), is being cared for by the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) in Goma. The 5-month old infant is still too young to survive alone in the wild.

The necropsy carried out on the four dead gorillas revealed that Mburanumwe, a sub-adult female, was not pregnant as has been reported previously.

The DR Congo's wildlife and protected areas authority, ICCN, held a meeting on July 27 with key partners in the region, including the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), which has worked in the region to conserve mountain gorillas since 1991.

The meeting aligned all partners to develop a clear and effective emergency plan which will be put in place to cope with the current situation in Virunga National Park. ICCN will deploy its Force Avance to bolster gorilla protection by supporting local rangers in the Mikeno sector of the park, the section mountain gorillas inhabit. The Force is composed of 33 ICCN rangers who have been trained specifically to protect the park.

IGCP and other partners will provide support to the rangers in terms of logistics, training, field equipment, rations, and other needs.

IGCP is working to get the political support from the Congolese government as well as raise awareness among the local human communities about the importance of mountain gorillas and conservation in the park. The gorillas are visited often by tourists -- and provide a unique economic resource to the region.

The International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP) is a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna & Flora International, the World Wide Fund for Nature, and the protected area authorities in DR Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda, to conserve the threatened mountain gorillas and their forest habitat.

How You Can Help

AWF and IGCP are raising emergency funds to support the rangers in DR Congo. The rangers need additional equipment to increase patrols to monitor and protect the mountain gorillas. Every donation helps. If you would like to donate to the campaign, you can donate online at www.awf.org/gorillarangers. When you donate through this page, your donation will go directly to support mountain gorillas and rangers.

Contact

John Butler

African Wildlife Foundation

-4473

jbutler@awf.org