Senkwekwe

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Senkwekwe († 2007) was a male mountain gorilla who lived in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The silverback presented from 2001 to 2007 the head of the Rugendo family which was named after his father, the former leader of the group that way.

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Rugendo's family still consisted of 18 members in 1997. After an argument with one of his sons ( Humba ), however, the group broke up, and only eight animals remained with Rugendo. Senkwekwe was one of them. In 2001 fighting between the Congolese army and armed militias increased in intensity in the area of ​​the Virunga volcanoes , during which Rugendo fell between the front lines and was killed on July 15. His son Senkwekwe then took over the leadership of the group.

Senkwekwe - the name refers to a bird that sings early in the morning - was known to be particularly calm and peaceful. Of all the people in the national park, his family was most used to being around people. So much so, that she occasionally crossed the park's boundaries and enjoyed the crops of the neighboring villages, which led to great tensions between humans and animals. However, the park's rangers are trained to mediate in such conflicts.

By June 2007, his family had grown to twelve. Just a month later, what came to be known as the "Senkwekwe Massacre" occurred. The group was attacked by armed men and six of the animals were killed, including Senkwekwe himself. The reason for this was apparently neither the need for meat (see Bushmeat ) nor the financial interest in selling the young animals. It seemed like a warning to the park authorities to stop interfering in poaching and illegal logging of forests for charcoal production. The national park authorities describe the massacre as the greatest tragedy for the mountain gorillas in over 30 years.

Senkwekwe died on July 22, 2007 and was buried in the gorilla cemetery in Rumangabo.

The Senkwekwe Center

When the armed conflict ended, the previously evacuated rangers returned to the park. After the necessary donations had been raised, a station for gorilla orphans was set up in 2009 and named the Senkwekwe Center in honor of the silverback who was killed . The facility is located near Rumangabo Station and is home to the only human mountain gorillas in the world.

Today the four young animals Ndeze (Senkwekwe's daughter), Ndakasi , Maisha and Matabishi are looked after by a team of veterinarians and keepers with the aim of enabling them to live in the wilderness in a manner appropriate to their species in the near future. The release of gorillas into the wild is a difficult, time-consuming and costly process. They first have to recover physically and mentally from the strains of their mostly traumatic experiences - whether through the death of their parents or their illegal imprisonment - before they are ready for a life in freedom. Kaboko , before the arrival of Matabishi the only male gorilla of the station, died during the recent armed conflict in the region in July 2012. While the actual cause of death an intestinal infection was, it was probably the volleys of machine guns and grenade launchers of the attacking rebels , which the Caused a collapse of his immune system.

The station plays an important role in mediating orphaned gray gorillas that have been confiscated from illegal animal traders. They are temporarily cared for in the station and, once their genetic identity has been determined, they are transferred to the GRACE Center near the city of Butembo in the DR Congo.

One focus of the center is the cooperation with the local population in order to bring the importance of animals closer to the people - especially the schoolchildren as the younger generation. For many of them, a visit to the Senkwekwe Center is their first chance to see mountain gorillas with their own eyes.

The Senkwekwe Center plays some central role in the Oscar-nominated documentary Virunga (2014) that the precarious situation of park rangers during the recent outbreak of the civil war and the efforts of the administration to the exploitation of the park by the British oil company SOCO has to content . The Virunga National Park is still the target of both economic and military interests: 130 rangers have been murdered there in the last 20 years.

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Rugendo Family ( Memento from July 15, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  2. ↑ Senkwekwe from Deceased Gorillas ( Memento from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  3. ↑ Senkwekwe from Deceased Gorillas ( Memento from July 23, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ↑ Wildlife authorities arrest gorilla traffickers
  5. ↑ https://virunga.org/projects/gorilla-orphans
  6. ↑ Orphanages for gorillas
  7. ↑ Gorilla Journal No. 40, June 2010
  8. ^ Matabishi.Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  9. ↑ https://virunga.org/projects/gorilla-orphans
  10. ↑ La rete e il social network al servizio dei Gorilla di montagna ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.areapress.it
  11. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3455224
  12. ↑ https://virunga.org/news/academy-awards-oscar-nomination-given-virunga-documentary