Posing with those who fight for their survival every day. Tender images, those of mountain gorillas taking a selfie with the rangers, who saved their life when they were still cubs.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himPosing with those who fight for their survival every day. Tender images, those of mountain gorillas taking a selfie with the rangers, who saved their life when they were still cubs.
We are in the Virunga National Park in Congo, the oldest African national park which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here every day, the rangers risk their lives to protect the mountain gorillas who are in danger from poaching and armed conflicts in the area.
But not only that, the gorillas we see in these beautiful photos were all puppies orphaned by the poachers and were rescued and raised in freedom by the rangers.
For this reason the selfies look like familiar pictures: the gorillas are on the shoulders of the rangers, they approach them and even try to imitate them. As we know, there are fewer than 900 specimens of mountain gorillas and about half live in this park.
A risky job that of the rangers, considering that in 20 years 140 have been killed. To denounce the risks of the rangers' work, the documentary “Virunga”, nominated for an Oscar in 2014, was made.
According to Innocente Mburanumwe, rangers to gorillas are like their parents:
"They try to imitate humans standing on two legs, it doesn't happen often, but in this case these two orphaned gorillas, they see in these gorillas, their parents," says Mburanumwe.
A total of 600 rangers work in the park. There are not only mountain gorillas, but many other animals that have been saved from the armed conflicts that exist between the government and independent groups.
The eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is mired in a conflict between the government and various armed groups. Gorillas are hunted for international trade but mainly because they are used as ingredients in traditional Asian medicine.
For this, there is a need to protect them and the rangers do just that: the bond that is created with the gorillas is wonderful and transpires from these photos.
Read also:
- The extraordinary friendship between a gorilla and a tiny primate (VIDEO)
- Mountain gorillas: the Congo rangers who risk their lives every day to protect them (PHOTO and VIDEO)
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