PRIMATES

[Lady Cop]

he was rescued from a poacher's backpack. sweet little guy.


from the daily fail
With fearful eyes and defensive body language, baby gorilla Shamavu does not realise how close he came to being sold by poachers on the black market for £25,000.

The one-and-a-half-year-old animal was rescued by the Congolese Wildlife Authorities rangers earlier this month in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga national park in the latest sting operation designed to halt an upsurge in trafficking.

The illegal trading, which is threatening the existence of the already endangered species, is being stamped out - this was the fourth such incident since April - but there are still many gorillas who are not as fortunate as Shamavu.

According to the latest figures there are believed to be only 790 mountain gorillas left on the planet - and almost 500 of them are found in the Virunga volcanoes, a conservation area, which is spread across DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

The other 300 or so creatures can be found in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda.

The Congolese Wildlife Authorities have begun to pose undercover in order to catch out poachers - and that is how Shamavu was rescued on October 6, in Kirumba, a town on the western border of the national park.