It is not quite difficult to understand the universality of emotions among all living beings. A picture that had gone viral on the internet is that of a sad gorilla being comforted by a ranger because the gorilla had lost its mother who was hunted and killed by the poachers.
The picture is that of a national animal park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ranger is seen sitting with a baby gorilla who has been recently orphaned in the sanctuary. The man comforts and consoles the gorilla, sympathizing with it for its loss. The bond is indescribable where both realize and value each other’s presence. The gorilla too reciprocates to the man’s sympathy by placing its arm on his lap.
The video below shows how a five-year-old baby gorilla is being taken care of.
It mentions how gorillas by themselves tend to lead the sanctuary caretakers to their homes. The chief of the sanctuary along with several other helping rangers have successfully taken care of the animals. The chief narrates how the babies have been recovered from beside the corpses of their dead parents who were hunted down mercilessly by the poachers. The baby gorillas were found when they were almost a few months old from this deplorable plight. One of them had been injured by the attacks of illegal poachers that resulted in a severed arm.
The rangers mention how abundant care and protection ought to be given to the babies for them to grow properly, without any fear. It is indeed miraculous how the babies continued to survive by themselves, without their mothers. The most saddening affair is that only a few mountain gorillas continue to exist while the larger population has become prey to incessant animal poaching and extinction. The rest have been unnecessarily made victims to the havoc of the impending wars that frequently take place in Congo. The fear has not been completely erased out as the horrors of war continue to exist which leads to the death of numerous gorillas due to crossfire between the opposition parties.
The situation of conflict remains a regular thing in Eastern Congo.
The orphaned animals are kept in divided zones of the park which is otherwise impossible to be traversed by road due to the existing tensions among the rival troops. The Rangers have become the sole source of protection for the endangered ones. Out of whom several have become prey to the conflicts of wars and died. It is quite natural that the Rangers want to protect the sanctuary as much as possible. Irrespective of the sacrifices and loss that they continue to face while protecting the sanctuary. The gorillas are worth every bit of the sacrifice. They are very much like humans who understand and reciprocate to the feelings and actions of humans.
Similar to the several other orphaned gorillas, the one present in the picture has also suffered the loss of its mother and has been rescued by one of the rangers, Patrick Karabaranga. Thus, this sanctuary in Congo is home to a large number of endangered gorillas of the world.