Virunga National Park

An anti-poaching patrol in the Virunga Massif made a gruesome discovery on February 1st, 2012: a young mountain gorilla was dead, caught in a poacher’s snare. The male is estimated to be approximately three years old. A post mortem exam conducted by the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and veterinarians with the Rwanda Development Board revealed that the gorilla was dehydrated and its stomach empty, so it was very likely that he struggled with the snare for several days before dying.

The mountain gorilla was from an unhabituated group which comprise only 27% of the total gorilla population in the Virunga Volcanoes, according to the last complete census conducted in 2010.

According to the Volcanoes National Park, one poacher has been arrested and three more are being pursued in collaboration with Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Summary of a news article by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme