Only a few days after a poachers snare had taken one of their own, a pair of young endangered mountain gorillas worked together to locate and destroy traps set by poachers in the area.
“This is absolutely the first time that we’ve seen juveniles doing that … I don’t know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares,” said Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.
“We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas … so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that,” Vecellio also claimed.
Thousands of traps are set in the mountain gorillas habitat at Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park by poachers looking for Bush-meat.
These traps are actually meants for antelope and other species but often capture gorillas. Adults can usually free themselves but youngsters aren’t usually as strong.
A week prior to this, an infant called Ngwino was caught by one of these traps and was tragically found too late.
Often, trackers at the reserve go through the area to dismantle any traps that may have been left to protect the animals.
However, it is difficult to find all of them, this is because they are hard to spot and the sheer number of them makes it almost impossible.
John Ndayambaje, a tracker, was near a group of gorillas when one of the silverbacks grunted to caution him about a snare.
He then witnessed two young gorillas broke a branch from the tree to set off the trap and free the noose. They then moved on to another snare which they also broke apart.
Simply amazing!
