AN ORPHAN IN CONGO: Poachers wipe out family for meat trade
On the 4th October this orphaned baby gorilla was handed to The Aspinall Foundation project in Brazzaville, after being rescued from hunters who had killed his parents in Odzala National Park - 400 miles north of the capital.
Park rangers found Yengo dehydrated and wounded, he had a shotgun pellet embedded in his cheek but was otherwise in good health. Unfortunately the rangers could not save the rest of his family who had been attacked by poachers for their meat - a highly prized luxury food in Congo.
Amos Courage Overseas Project Director said: ‘Orphans such as Yengo sometimes survive because their mothers shield their offspring instinctively against the full blast of a hunter's shotgun - Yengo was lucky that the park rangers got to him in time, most gorilla orphans are left to die after their families have been killed.'
In 2008 The Aspinall Foundation identified an ongoing problem with the lack of enforcement of national wildlife laws in Congo and, in a bid to tackle this problem, a collaborative wildlife law enforcement project named PALF was initiated by the foundation and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Amos said: ‘The Aspinall Foundation has played an important part in protecting gorillas. Orphans like Yengo would have been smuggled into the major cities and sold to expats who would pay large sums for an endearing gorilla baby, unknowingly fuelling the trade in orphans - thanks to our work educating expats, this trade has dried up in major cities. Sadly, the trade in bushmeat still thrives. The difficulty now is tracking down these orphaned gorillas who are usually left to die in remote towns and villages of Congo; this is where PALF is so important.'
The project (PALF) has four key areas of activity; investigations, field operations, legal action and media reporting. Over the course of 2009 the PALF project has been instrumental in a number of arrests, prosecutions and seizures; including ivory, gorilla body parts, live apes and wild animal pelts.
In August this year a Chinese national was sentenced to four years in prison for trying to smuggle ivory out of the country thanks to PALF's activities. In June 2009, the PALF project was selected by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) for a targeted fundraising campaign; ‘Year of the Gorilla'.
Amos commented: ‘Yengo will have a second chance at a normal life when he is reintroduced to the wild by The Aspinall Foundation into the Lesio - Louna Reserve, north of Brazzaville. The work by PALF to bring the killers of his family to justice continues.'
