Saving the Mountain Gorillas - Democratic Republic of Congo

Saving the Mountain Gorillas - Democratic Republic of Congo



Feb 2007 Days before Senkwekwe and three other mountain gorillas were killed, journalist Paul Raffaele filmed Senkwekwe in the wild. He reports on the battle to save the world's mountain gorillas. In the mountains of the DRC, silverback gorilla Senkwekwe watches over his young family. A few weeks later, he was dead, alongside three females in his harem. It was the worst gorilla massacre in 25 years. "There's a threat to the gorillas from poaching, for the exotic pet trade", explains ranger Rob Muir. Gorillas now share their habitat with rebel militias, driven into the hills by UN peacekeepers. These rebels could have been responsible for the killing of another two mountain gorillas earlier. "They were stripped of all their flesh", describes Muir.