Two babies gorillas rescued in Congo are receiving care in a national park by its staff, which fear that this can be a result of an increasing in wildlife trafficking due to the situation of rebel groups fighting among themselves and against the army of Congo. The information is from NBC News.

“In areas where rebel activity has increased, hunting has also increased,” said Luanne Cadd, spokesperson of Virunga National Park.

“The hunting of elephants greatly increased in the central area of ??Virunga,” said Luanne.

The gorillas saved – one is 4-month-old and the other is 9-month-old – are the species Gorilla beringei graueri, one of two subspecies of the species Gorilla beringei (gorilla-of-the-east) and are related with the famous mountain gorillas species, according to Wikipedia .

“The trafficking of baby gorillas is terribly harmful to the endangered gorilla population, as many members of a family of gorillas must have been dead for babies to be able to be hunted,” said Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park.

Regarding the gorillas of Virunga Mountains, Luanne says that they do not know about their situation. “We still can not inspect this area.”

The 4-monht-old gorilla rescued in the Democratic Republic of Congo open her the eyes quite well in feed time at the Orphan Gorillas Sanctuary in Virunga National Park.

With these gorillas, the number of rescued gorillas in Congo in the past four years reaches 10, according to information from the park.

The 9-month-old gorilla was given to the park staff on September 13 by a group of environmental protection that said that rescued the gorilla from an armed group.

The 4-monht-old gorilla was rescued on September 20 during an operation that led to the arrest of two men who said they got the gorilla in an area where armed groups were fighting for control of mines. The accused men will be judged, and possibly will be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The gorilla population that exists only in the eastern part of Congo is estimated at less than 4000 animals. In 1995, the estimative was of 17 000 animals.

Protecting wildlife in Virunga is a deadly task: 11 Rangers were killed last year in armed confrontations, and in 2012, one was killed and several were injured.

For now, the babies remain in Virunga park during the quarantine period of 3 months.

“Both babies showed interest for each other when they met,” Luanne said in a post of the park’s blog . “But for the older gorilla, it seems she considers the younger one represents a competition for food and milk, and she is always trying to catch the bottle of milk and the bananas, and even makes scandal when she can not catch them. ”

“The plan will be more likely to take them to the sanctuary in Congo that already has 13 gorillas of the same species,” said Luanne.

“There was talk about the idea of releasing them into their natural habitat,” she said, but added:”it is a bit controversial because of the uncertainty of their fate in their natural habitat.”

Click here for the full video report in English.