Gorilla Warfare
Gorilla Warfare
Gorilla Warfare
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Africa. Yet most have not received their<br />
government salaries in years. Instead<br />
many are now paid by a European Unionfunded<br />
conservation group called Wildlife<br />
Direct, cofounded in January by Leakey.<br />
The group solicits funds from donors with<br />
the guarantee that 100 percent ofthe money<br />
goes straight to the rangers.<br />
Those officers are devoted to their imposing<br />
charges. They have their favorites,<br />
whom they follow closely and write about<br />
on a blog that Wildlife Direct has set up.<br />
Leakey's partner, Emmanuel de Merode,<br />
says thatas recently as 2001 "therewasn't a<br />
single vehicle in the whole sector; none of<br />
the rangers had uniforms or rifles!' Since<br />
1994, about 120 rangers have been killed<br />
in the line of duty. Even now they are<br />
hopelessly outgunned: Nkunda alone has<br />
almost 8,000 highly trained men under his<br />
command. Last week the United Nations,<br />
which has several thousand peacekeepers<br />
stationed in the area, declared Nkunda's<br />
forces "the single most serious threat" to<br />
Congolese stability. "It's almost impossible<br />
to be sanguine about the gorillas' future,"<br />
says Leakey. "They are hugely vulnerable<br />
in part because they're living in areas that<br />
are hugely unsettled ... The security ofthis<br />
species is not guaranteed."<br />
The morning after last week's massacre,<br />
whenthe rains hadstopped, rangers<br />
returned to the forests to search for survivors.<br />
That's when they discovered the<br />
hulking mass ofSenkekwe, a 600-pound<br />
silverback shot execution style in a copse<br />
oflush vegetation. One massive arm was<br />
outstretched, the other held close to his<br />
heart, perhaps a sign that he died while<br />
thumpinghis chest. With Senkekwegone,<br />
the unity of the family was immediately<br />
cast in doubt.<br />
As the sun cleared the valley walls and<br />
rose into the sky, nearly a hundredvillagers<br />
from nearby settlements gathered on the<br />
slopes below the forest. They carried the<br />
powerful bodies out and laid them reverently<br />
on the ground. They carefully<br />
wrapped the great apes' faces with leaves to<br />
keep flies away. Using trees and stalks of<br />
cut bamboo, they lashed the dead gorillas<br />
to makeshift stretchers. And then, with a<br />
mighty surge and a great clattering of<br />
voices, they hoisted the gorillas onto their<br />
shoulders and marched down the hills, toward<br />
the setting sun.<br />
•<br />
AUGUST 6, 2007 NEWSWEEK 29