RSSOrphaned Baby Gorilla, Ndakasi, Found After Mother had been Killed by Rebels in The Congo
Just another example of the victims of the war that takes place in The Congo. This time, its an innocent baby mountain gorilla who finds itself orphaned after its mother was shot.
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. (Daily Mail)
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12 Responses to “Orphaned Baby Gorilla, Ndakasi, Found After Mother had been Killed by Rebels in The Congo”
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Can’t we humans, the “superior species,” confine our carnage to our own kind?
I suppose that sounds dumb … but what is the possible purpose in shooting a gorilla?
An endangered species … too bad we couldn’t say that about the van der Scum family on Aruba!
(I bet someone will attack me for bringing Aruba into this.)
Gosh what a beautiful baby–and no I’m not being sarcastic.
lol Richard! awe what a cutie baby gorilla!
Why is there any demand that incites the poaching? An ashtray?? Its sickening.
Gorillas are very attentive to their young, they carry them just like we carry babies. It sure is a cutie pie, probably wondering where it’s mommie is. Isn’t that sad. Hunt the poachers like they hunt the wild.
Poacher’s and perverts…same difference.
When it comes to the van de sloot’s it seems like they fit into anything pertaining to cruelty.
Gorillas live in family groups. As most know, a Silverback is the dominant male of the group who will put his life on the line to protect his family. Their DNA is 98% the same as ours and they care for and train their young much like humans. This is not much different than killing a human mother holding her child.
There are places where bushmeat is used for food or offered for sale because people don’t have any other way to feed their families. That’s why organizations have tried to go in and establish these areas as tourist destinations where people can see gorillas or orangutans (or other wildlife) in the wild and help the local people earn their living through tourism which in turn means they want to protect wildlife. They also go into schools with orphaned baby animals so children learn early that these are sensitive and intelligent creatures.
The Gorilla Foundation is currently building a sanctuary in Hawaii for gorillas. While they are working to protect gorillas in Africa, if they’re unable to keep the numbers from dwindling further, this sanctuary in Hawaii will be available for them in an environment very similar to their native one. Given the war and poverty in Africa, this sanctuary is probably going to be needed. This is NOT a zoo-type of habitat, but a protected area where the animals can live wild and free.
Thank you for bringing this to Scared Monkeys, Red.
This militia originally was originally disarmed but we re-armed by U.N. peacekeepers from Pakistan who trafficked arms for gold,the miltia has threatened to kill all the gorillas iin the area.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/05/23/congo.un.troops.reut/index.html?eref=edition_world
Conservationists also accuse the Mai Mai of slaughtering hundreds of hippos with machine guns on the southern shores of Lake Edward in late 2006.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070521/sc_nm/congo_democratic_gorillas_dc
Richard you are 1 bad man !!! Now write something else funny about the vander scum family for your punishment !!!
Hard to think of anything “funny” to say on a heart-breaking thread like this one. The news that LilPuma gave us is astonishing … about the Hawaii sanctuary.
My understanding is that the Singapore Zoo is somewhat like that … the animals are free to roam in “natural” conditions, and the people are kept in a tram or something like that. I imagine it’s safer to be there than in a lot of other places … safer for both animals and people.
What’s so horrible about this is that apparently the killing of the gorilla, execution style so to speak, wasn’t motivated by anything sensible. There was absolutely no reason for it; self defense (not that gorillas go around attacking at random), food, protecting crops (I’ve read that Sri Lankan peasants are prone to kill elephants because they trample their crops; don’t know how true it is), etc.
As senseless as many of the killings we read about every day, if not more so. But the picture of that guy feeding the baby gorilla with a baby bottle … another senseless horror. The kind that we read about every day.
This is, I suppose, an inane question, reflecting more on my own ignorance than anything else … but I’m at a loss as to what the fighting in the Congo, and by implication many of the other African countries, is about.
Must be about money and power in the last analysis, I suppose. But it reminds me of the massacres between the Serbs and the Croats, in a way … hatreds going back hundreds of years or more, but the outsider can’t figure out what the issue is in the first place.
Even a better analogy is Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsi. They were slaughtering each other … and for WHAT?
With all of the problems that afflict Africa, one wonders why this fighting (senseless to the outsider) keeps raging.
Of course, I suppose we can say this about the rest of the world ….
Thanks for the links, Observer. It’s heartbreaking to read about the violence against people and animals in Africa. Unfortunately, we don’t hear much about it in the news.
If anyone is interested in the Maui Preserve or learning about Koko, the gorilla who was orphaned and has learned sign language, you can read more here:
http://www.koko.org/index.php
At one time, Koko took a liking to a little kitten whom Koko named “Ball” IIRC. Koko also likes to paint and her artwork has been displayed and maybe even sold. There is a lot of info there that might be of interest to teachers or parents.
And we think we can ever turn this world into one civilized planet? This is a ****** up world that we live in, always has been, always will be.
The only difference now is that the internet has made us all aware that “kumbya” will never happen in this world!
wat a cute baby gorilla
!!!