Rita Summers
ENDANGERED SPECIES
Mountain Gorilla Baby
Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda
“Several groups of gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park have been habituated to having small groups of people spend an hour a day with them.”
“Known to science for only about 100 years, the species has been affected by loss of habitat to agriculture, deforestation, poaching, and human diseases, and it is now one of the most endangered animals on the planet. Only about 600 to 700 mountain gorillas remain living in the wild in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo.”
“Conservation efforts are focused on making sure the local communities benefit from the gorillas. In Rwanda, local people are hired to monitor the gorillas and serve as porters and guides for the tourists. Permits to trek to the gorillas are expensive and the money goes toward protecting them. The fate of this remarkable animal is in our hands.”
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