Mountain Gorillas Thrive Despite Human Violence

Despite violence in the region, monitors discovered that mountain gorilla populations in Virunga National Park had actually increased over the 16-month period since the last count was possible.

Conservationists working with endangered mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were relieved to find that the primates appear to be thriving despite their refuge being overrun by a rebel insurgency.

The first census of the gorillas since Virunga National Park was seized by rebels in 2007 found that 10 babies have been born in the colony over the past 16 months.

The park staff were allowed to return to conduct the head count through an unprecedented measure of cooperation between the insurgents and the administration of Congo’s president, Joseph Kabila.

During the eight-week census, rangers found that the area’s mountain gorilla population had grown from 72 to 81, including the 10 new babies and two females not previously identified.

But Virunga officials say that three gorillas that were seen during the park’s 2007 census were missing. Concern for the safety of the gorillas had been mounting since the conflict forced park officials to flee the refuge.

Before the area of the park where the gorillas live was seized in 2007, 10 mountain gorillas were killed. Only about 720 of the primates remain in the wild, with about 380 of those living in the Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Area, which straddles the borders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

Video: Virunga National Park