Gorillas Pose With Park Rangers In Heartwarming Photos

By
Emily Johnson
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Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s also the home of around one-third of the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. These animals are poached for different reasons, and some of them include food, traditional medicine, and meat trade.

Virunga National Park has more than 600 rangers who dedicated their lives to protecting the park and the animals in it. One of the rangers Mathieu Shamavu, shared some adorable photos of gorillas posing with him, and the images quickly went viral. There are other heartwarming photos on the park’s Instagram page that show how close rangers and gorillas are.

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You might have recently seen caretakers Mathieu and Patrick’s amazing selfie with female orphaned gorillas Ndakazi and Ndeze inside the Senkwekwe center at Virunga National Park. We’ve received dozens of messages about the photo. YES, it’s real! Those gorilla gals are always acting cheeky so this was the perfect shot of their true personalities! Also, it’s no surprise to see these girls on their two feet either—most primates are comfortable walking upright (bipedalism) for short bursts of time. Guys, if you shared our gorilla selfie post, please share our Earth Day posts as well! Conserving Virunga’s amazing wildlife is a constant challenge for the Park and our work wouldn’t be possible without your support. Matching funds have been pledged on every donation to the Park today, up to a total of $25,000—giving us the opportunity to raise $50,000 for Virunga! Visit virunga.org/donate or click the link in our bio to get involved and keep sharing our posts! Thank you! *We want to emphasize that these gorillas are in an enclosed sanctuary for orphans to which they have lived since infancy. The caretakers at Senkwekwe take great care to not put the health of the gorillas in danger. These are exceptional circumstances in which the photo was taken. It is never permitted to approach a gorilla in the wild. #gorillaselfie #gorilla #mountaingorilla #mountaingorillaselfie #selfie #earthday #earthday2019 #virunga #virunganationalpark #congo #drcongo #rdc #drc #protecttheplanet #happyearthday #wildlife #wildlifeconservation #conservation #natureconservation

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“There is a bond that ties us together. A relationship that is very, very close between the guardians and the gorillas”, says Andre Bauma, the manager of the Senkwekwe Centre.

Ranger have an incredibly difficult and dangerous job and 179 of them lost their lives trying to protect these poor animals. This is clearly the reason why gorillas have complete trust in them, which you can see in these photos.