Gorilla Journal 30, June 2005

Killing of a Gorilla Group in Kivu

Eating primates has become a new trend due to contacts with people who came from different regions during the wars. These strangers have transmitted or disseminated this mentality among the local people who are nowadays imitating this behaviour. As a result, some armed men on 7 June, 2005, wiped out an entire gorilla family at Pinga, Walikale Territory - a dominant silverback male, two females and a baby whose sex was not identified. After these killings it was noticed that one of the gorilla females was pregnant.
The poachers took the meat of the dead gorillas for sale to the population who refused to buy and eat it because according to them, gorillas are protected animals and the law forbids killing them; moreover, the local people state that the gorillas very much look like human beings.
To counteract this trend and this new behaviour, we realized that the local people should be educated and trained in conservation philosophy and principles. For this reason, emphasis is put on training young people at TCCB to prepare them for becoming agents in conservation and protecting nature resources.

Pierre Kakule Vwirasihikya

Pierre Kakule Vwirasihikya has been working in the Virunga National Park since 1982 and became a Senior Warden in 1988. He took part in gorilla monitoring in the park. Currently, he is both the Tayna Gorilla Reserve Coordinator (since 1998) and the UGADEC Executive Secretary (since 2002). He won the ASP Conservation award in 2002.

Democratic Republic of Congo overview

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