Friday, August 17, 2007

Gorilla Nation in danger

"They gave me my humanity. They gave me the whole range of human emotions and they also gave me a sense of responsibility". --Dawn Prince-Hughes (speaking of gorillas)

I rarely post anything here not directly related to autism or to my own obsessive interests. I'm making an exception for my Aspie friend, Holly, who has asked me to link to some resources to help the endangered Virunga Mountain Gorilla population. This is her letter:
Dear Bev,
There have occurred two very serious attacks on the Virunga Mountain Gorilla population in the past two months. At least seven critically endangered mountain gorillas have been killed in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) sector of the Virungas National Park. Approximately 370 mountain gorillas of the 700 total world population reside in the Virungas National Park that straddles the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. These are the worst attacks on the mountain gorillas on record, and Congolese and Rwandan research/conservation groups are very concerned that there may be more to come. You may read the details on the Wildlife Direct website at http://www.wildlifedirect.org .

Public awareness is a very powerful way of getting desperately needed support to the park rangers on the ground. The aforementioned Wildlife Direct website provides links to The Washington Post, Newsweek, and National Geographic, all of which publications have sent reporters into the DRC to document the Virunga Mountain Gorilla situation. Additional collaborating conservation organizations and their websites include The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International http://www.gorillafund.org) and the African Wildlife Foundation http://www.awf.org). I would be enormously grateful for your attention to the mountain gorilla plight, a species and environment very important to me, and would appreciate your support in forwarding this message to others. Thank you.

Respectfully,
Holly G.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for drawing our attention to this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why would people want to kill a gorilla? I understand people kill poor elephants out of greed, for their tusks. I understand their motivation, though it's unjustified and cruel. But what motivation would they have for killing a gorilla?

    ReplyDelete

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