The gorilla war in Congo
The mountain gorillas of Virunga National Park have been mostly unharmed by the civil war. But they are caught in a struggle between the government and rebels over who should control the park.
Reporting from Virunga National Park, Congo — Past some of the greenest hills, poorest villages and roughest roads in Africa, a machete-wielding ranger hacks his way deep into the jungle until a canopy of giant ferns and bamboo eclipses the sun.
Antelopes, elephants and hippos once thrived here in Africa's oldest national park. Decades of poaching have left little more than a few families of mountain gorillas. And civil war rages just miles away, the latest twist in a conflict that has ensnared eastern Congo for 12 years.
Unlike a quarter of a million of their human neighbors who have had to flee the latest fighting, the gorillas appear untouched so far. But they haven't escaped altogether: Aware that gorillas at times draw more global attention than the people of the Democratice Republic of Congo, rebels and the government are engaged in a kind of gorilla war over who should control the park
It's a struggle that bears many hallmarks of this region's conflict, including ethnic rivalry, resource exploitation and a scramble to curry international favor. When rebels seized control of the Virunga National Park's gorilla sanctuary in 2007, rangers who cared for the animals got caught in the middle. Some fled with government troops. Others stayed behind and continued doing their jobs.
After a two-hour hike, the ranger, one of those who stayed, stops suddenly and makes a throat-clearing grunt -- something like a noise you'd make to catch the attention of day-dreaming store clerk.
"A-hem!"
To the giant silver-back gorilla seated 30 feet away, it translates roughly the same, a kind of "excuse me" to alert the animal that humans are approaching. The bored-looking gorilla glances up and grunts back, giving rangers the green light to come closer.
A female, who rangers say is pregnant and called Lulengo, reclines on a patch of grass, picking nits off her shoulder. The dominant silver-back, with an enormous head and hands, noisily crunches bamboo trunks in his yellow teeth as easily as if they were celery stalks. Another female scurries away with a year-old baby clutching the black hairs of her back.
The family is one of seven living here. Mountain gorillas once numbered in the thousands. Only about 700 remain worldwide, including 200 in Virunga.
- Misty-eyed on a search for gorillas in Bwindi Nov 30, 2003
- The gorilla war in Congo Dec 06, 2008
- Congo Turmoil Devastates Lowland Gorillas Dec 26, 2004
