![]() ![]() ![]() The Fossey Fund works with Rwanda’s park rangers to provide protection, 365 days a year. To protect the gorillas, the organization uses a holistic approach. Sometimes snares are set to catch antelopes and other food sources, and gorillas can get caught. ” It’s one of the highest human population densities in Africa, so there’s a lot of pressure on the forest and the area that they live.”Īccording to Stoinski, human diseases are a major threat, as is the hunting of other wildlife in the forest. “They are literally stuck on top of these volcanoes surrounded by a sea of people,” Stoinski said. The gorillas’ comeback has not been easy, mostly due to habitat loss. “She really pioneered the study of gorillas and habituating them, getting them used to human presence, so you and I can sit as far away as that next office and observe the details of their life.” ![]() “At that time, the image of them was ‘King Kong’ – ferocious, strong, scary beast,” said Tara Stoinski, the Fossey Fund’s president and CEO. Today, despite years of regional instability and daily threats, the population of gorillas in the park has doubled.įossey was killed in Rwanda nearly 30 years ago, but the work she started continues through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and the nonprofit owes much of its success to its namesake. In the nearly 50 years since, what was a dire situation has become a rare conservation success story. A census conducted shortly after found that just 240 gorillas were left. But what she found was a species on the brink. She set up camp between two of the park’s volcanoes, planning to study the area’s critically endangered mountain gorillas. In 1967, American primatologist Dian Fossey arrived by herself at Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park. ![]()
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