Word: virunga
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...southern section of Virunga where the gorillas reside is strategically important to the rebels; the area was also attacked in January, when rebels allegedly killed then ate two of the silverbacks - a shocking act since conservationists say that mountain gorillas are usually not eaten. A total of 10 gorillas are known to have been killed this year, including a female gorilla killed execution-style. Two gorillas are still missing...
...flared up again in the chaotic Democratic Republic of the Congo and the endangered mountain gorillas are in the crossfire. Only 700 mountain gorillas, the males known for their moonlit silver-haired backs, exist. More than half live in Virunga National Park, a conservation area in eastern Congo that stretches into bordering Uganda and Rwanda. But last weekend rebels loyal to the dissident Congolese general Laurent Nkunda, took over the last protected section of the gorilla habitat in the park, raising questions over the fate of this last known population of the great apes. "The rangers were forced to flee...
...takes a bumpy and circuitous route to Kibuye, on the eastern shore of Lake Kivu. The driver constantly sounds his horn or drives frighteningly close to people to scare them off the road. The landscape outside is breathtaking: lush green hills, banana plantations and in the distance, the Virunga volcanoes, home of the famous Rwandan mountain gorillas...
Fossey, 53, was found hacked to death by a machete at her isolated camp in the Virunga Mountains, where she had lived on and off since 1967. No arrests have been made, but authorities believe the killer was someone who knew her. Fossey was often at odds with the local population, especially poachers, who sell the heads, hands and feet of mountain gorillas as curios and ashtrays. The rare primates, which have not been able to survive in captivity, now number only about 240. Fossey was a vigilant protector of her research subjects; in 1980 she reportedly abducted the child...