I thought it would be fun to see what the gorilla blog brings up in a wordle. The Rangers are clearly the essential part of the Virunga equation.

Thousands of women and children, are walking miles in search of safety. I cant imagine how frightening this must be. When I see the numbers of people streaming down the dusty roads, carrying as much as they could take with them from their homes, children clinging to their backs and carrying heavy loads themselves, I feel shocked and so sad. Those streams of people who have all been through such hardship, terror and fear are once again faced with this. There is no choice but to flee, but to where? No idea where a next meal or drink might come from. I can’t imagine what I would take if I had to pack and leave with no warning. What could I carry as well as my children?

These streams of moving people? There is some security in numbers, the fact that if people travel en masse that they are likely to be safer, there is less of a chance that you will be singled out, mugged, shot, raped. What is happening in eastern Congo today- its the primate power game. We are higher primates after all. And it shows. The ugly display of dominant males carving out territory, baring teeth and intimidating the population into submission. Killing, raping, uncontrolled violence. Being left behind or too sick to travel means that one is totally vulnerable. Those of us so fortunate to be able to read and watch these terrible scenes unfold from the safety of our own homes need to do something about it. We must act, we must raise awareness. We have to do our little bit for those families, particularly of the rangers who stayed behind to protect the park station and then had to flee. We need to get some support to those women and children who are faced with such hardship. I know that every little bit counts. A few more friends to join the Facebook cause, a few more friends to join the gorillacd.org community and a few more small donations will all go a long way to the long term protection of the Virunga National Park, its wildlife, and the people that surround it.

Exactly WHO ARE WE?

This is something that very few of us stop to reflect on.

You and I are essentially big brained, “intelligent”, upright walking apes? We have to step back and look at ourselves in relation to other living things.

We belong to the family called the Hominidae, (which includes our closest relatives-  the Great Apes) and we belong to a single species, Homo sapiens sapiens. We are just one species out of approximately 5500 known mammalian species living today, which represents a fraction of a percentage of all mammals that have ever lived on planet earth.
We are just one species of more than sixteen upright walking apes that existed over the past 8 million years. As far as we know we are the only fully upright walking ape species living today.

We share the planet with our closest living relatives the great apes, today represented by only a handful of species, including Gorillas, Chimpanzees and Bonobos.

Over the past 6-7 million years they have each come on an evolutionary journey as complex and as interesting as our own.

“What is our future on planet earth?”

“For how long will we be around?”

And even more importantly …we must ask the question “For how long will our closest living relatives the Great Apes be around?”

We certainly have an opportunity now through the team on the ground, with gorillacd.org and with our friends to have a good go at making a difference for the three species of Virungas Great Apes.

Indeed we are rapidly destroying their habitats and fast driving them to extinction. This is a collective  WE.  We share a common past and we also share a common future. WE have to do something about it!

We have an opportunity to educate and inform a fourth species, ourselves, about the importance of preserving Virunga National Park.