Gorillas: Kings Of Congo, CNN's Anderson Cooper Visits Endangered Mountain :
They act tough, but mountain gorillas are really gentle giants. They are playful, peaceful, highly intelligent, and one of our closest animal relatives. The gorillas live in families, each headed by an adult male called a "silverback" because of its distinctive coloring. Over the years, they've been gradually introduced to people, so scientists can study them, and taught that people won't hurt them. But this year, in Congo, humans have betrayed them. Mountain gorillas are under attack.
"They’re extremely threatened in Congo. Threatened to the extent that we're worried about the survival of the whole population," Dr. Emmanuel de Merode, head of the non-profit group WildlifeDirect, explains. "The whole population could be destroyed. Could be wiped out."
WildlifeDirect helps pay the salaries of Congo's park rangers, who protect the gorillas. Dr. de Merode was with the rangers in July when they made their most gruesome discovery, finding the bodies of four gorillas who had been slaughtered in the dead of night.
"It was a terrible, terrible scene to witness," de Merode recalls. "It was our whole lives. Everything we were working for-that was shattered in front of us."
The dead gorillas were part of the Rugendo family. They were the first gorilla group introduced to humans. "We had spent time with that group. And it was, in many ways, a strong sense of trust," de Merode tells Cooper.
The first victim de Merode found was a female named "Safari."
"She was quite famous in many ways because she had just had a baby," he says. "And we had taken a photo in the days after she was born and that photo had been you know a real symbol of hope for us. And then to find her dead. And her baby nowhere to be seen, was gutting and for all of us."
Safari, de Merode says, had been shot twice through the chest. Her killers then poured fuel on her and set her on fire....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/07/60minutes/main3591264.shtml
They act tough, but mountain gorillas are really gentle giants. They are playful, peaceful, highly intelligent, and one of our closest animal relatives. The gorillas live in families, each headed by an adult male called a "silverback" because of its distinctive coloring. Over the years, they've been gradually introduced to people, so scientists can study them, and taught that people won't hurt them. But this year, in Congo, humans have betrayed them. Mountain gorillas are under attack.
"They’re extremely threatened in Congo. Threatened to the extent that we're worried about the survival of the whole population," Dr. Emmanuel de Merode, head of the non-profit group WildlifeDirect, explains. "The whole population could be destroyed. Could be wiped out."
WildlifeDirect helps pay the salaries of Congo's park rangers, who protect the gorillas. Dr. de Merode was with the rangers in July when they made their most gruesome discovery, finding the bodies of four gorillas who had been slaughtered in the dead of night.
"It was a terrible, terrible scene to witness," de Merode recalls. "It was our whole lives. Everything we were working for-that was shattered in front of us."
The dead gorillas were part of the Rugendo family. They were the first gorilla group introduced to humans. "We had spent time with that group. And it was, in many ways, a strong sense of trust," de Merode tells Cooper.
The first victim de Merode found was a female named "Safari."
"She was quite famous in many ways because she had just had a baby," he says. "And we had taken a photo in the days after she was born and that photo had been you know a real symbol of hope for us. And then to find her dead. And her baby nowhere to be seen, was gutting and for all of us."
Safari, de Merode says, had been shot twice through the chest. Her killers then poured fuel on her and set her on fire....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/07/60minutes/main3591264.shtml
topics:
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Climate Change,
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Endangered Species,
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- julesrs007
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- added July 12, 2008
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