Parenting

Baby Gorilla Born to Endangered Group in Congo

I love great stories about endangered animals possibly starting to re-populate, plus how cute is that baby monkey?

Fox news has a story about Ndeze, a rare mountain gorilla in eastern Congo, where rebels have been accused of killing and eating the endangered animals.

The tiny gorilla was born on Feb 17 at Congo’s Virunga National Park, home to some of the world’s last 700 mountain gorillas.

“It’s incredibly positive. These gorillas have managed to survive a 10-year civil war,” Newport told The Associated Press by telephone from the park. It is “an absolute miracle and testament to the work of the rangers, who worked throughout the war without receiving a salary, and to conservationists from all over the world.”

Last month rebels were accused of slaughtering two of the animals for food.

Ndeze is the 12th member of a gorilla family living in a sector of the park called Mikeno that is home to about 80 gorillas, though a precise census has been impossible to carry out because of ongoing insecurity.

It was not known whether Ndeze was male or female, as it would be difficult to visually determine the baby’s sex for several months, Newport said.

About 380 mountain gorillas live in Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Area, which is shared by Congo and neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. The other 320 of the gorillas live in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Despite the constant threat of poaching and war, the population in Mikeno is estimated to have risen by about 14 percent, Newport said.

“The Mountain Gorillas have been under enormous pressure for many years, and a newborn is always a positive step toward protecting these animals,” Leakey said. “We should not forget that this is the product of enormous effort and sacrifice on the part of African rangers, many of whom have paid the price of this success with their lives.”

Some 97 rangers working in Virunga park alone have been killed over the last decade by armed groups and poachers.

Virunga Park was established in 1925 as Africa’s first national park and was classified as a U.N. World Heritage Site in 1979.

They should bring their Gorillas to North America. I know this is not their natural habitat, but we would keep them safe.

About the author

Lisa Arneill

Founder of Growing Your Baby and World Traveled Family. Canadian mom of 2 boys, photo addict, lover of bulldogs, and museumgoer. Always looking for our next vacation spot!

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