The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <temporary181 AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Baby mountain gorilla found clinging to body of mother 'executed' by 
rebels in Congo

11th June 2007

Photos here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=461248&in_page_id=1811

(if link doesn't work, use: http://tinyurl.com/2hteqq )

Wildlife rangers are battling to save an orphaned baby mountain 
gorilla found clinging to her dead mother in the Congo. The adult 
gorilla had been shot a point-blank range in the back of the head.

The two-month-old, who has been named Ndakasi by conservationists 
looking after her in Goma, is taking baby formula from a feeding 
bottle.

"She's more or less OK. It is certainly a worrying situation, but not 
hopeless," Paulin Ngobobo, senior warden in eastern Congo's Virunga 
National Park.

Ndakasi, who was born on April 15, would normally have suckled for up 
to three years.

Only 700 mountain gorillas survive in the wild, more than half of 
them in Virunga.

At least two have been killed and eaten already this year by rebels 
living off the land as militia fighting drags on despite the official 
end of Congo's five-year war in 2003.

It is unclear who had killed the adult female or why.

She had been killed "execution-style" in the back of the head and 
left at the scene rather than taken away to be eaten, said Emmanuel 
de Merode of conservation group Wildlife Direct.

"It looks like she was lured with bananas because we found bananas at the 
site.

"A second gorilla was probably shot because there was a trail of 
blood nearby and three gunshots were heard. The other was probably 
wounded and got away," he said.

"There are militia groups there. This particular incident was in the 
Mikeno sector, which is on the border of Rwanda. There was a lot of 
fighting in that area in January and those problems have not entirely 
been solved."

Last month Wildlife Direct said Mai Mai rebels had attacked patrol 
posts in Virunga park, killing one wildlife officer and critically 
injuring three others, and threatened to slaughter gorillas if park 
rangers retaliated.

More than 150 rangers have been killed in the last decade while 
protecting Congo's parks from poachers, rebel groups, illegal miners 
and land invasions, working through the war without pay.