This Feature was shot in 2007 in Virunga National Park, Eastern DR Congo.
The story is told using extended captions, so please view on a desktop screen if possible.
Augustin Kambale, 31, is a wildlife ranger caring for the last 100 mountain gorillas still alive in the Democratic Republic of Congo after years of fighting. He works in the southern.sector of Africa’s oldest reserve, the 8,000 sq km Virunga National Park, in eastern DR Congo.
Of the 700 mountain gorillas left in the world, 320 are in Uganda and the remainder are in the Virunga Mountains which also cross into Uganda and Rwanda.
Mr Kambale has three sons and has been forced to flee his patrol post numerous times during his 13-year career as rebels set up camps in forests nearby. Each day when working he rises at dawn and heads out on patrol with two or three rangers. They spend hours tracking gorillas, taking notes, keeping logs of sightings and monitoring the families.
"Sometimes we will walk for eight hours and find nothing, but it is always worth it because you know the next day, or the day after that you will find the gorillas again,” Mr Kambale says.
“The longer we are able to work without interruption the better we can learn to know these wonderful animals.”
However this last year has seen Laurent Nkunda’s rebels take over the Gorilla Sector of Virunga National Park and the worst mountain gorilla massacre on record.
In 2007 ten mountain gorillas were killed, one of which was a member of the then 34-strong Kabirizi family, headed by this silverback. One of four groups that Mr Kambale spends time with.
Once again the rangers, 680 in total, who work for the Congolese wildlife authority (ICCN), were forced to reduce their patrols and some to flee. They risk their lives to protect the gorillas, and other animals in the park, despite small and irregular wages. Since the start of the war in 1996 over 120 rangers have been killed by rebels while on duty.
“Our job can be very dangerous, but if we were not here we are afraid no one would protect these rare animals,” says Mr Kambale.
The rangers can identify each gorilla by name by memorising the markings on their face. A log book is kept with facial drawings of each individual. The rangers let the gorillas know they are approaching by making a noise understood and agreed by both of them. A way of saying – it is ok, we are here as friends.
“When we first find a new family, we spend more than a month going no closer than 100m,” Mr Kambale says. “After a year, we can go close and bring tourists."
Before the conflict the mountain gorillas were a premier tourist attraction in DRC, but now tourist lodges such as this one at Bukima patrol post are run down and disused. It is now only Rwanda and Uganda who continue to reap the economic benefits from the thousands of tourists who pay over $400 to view the gorillas. Congo's economy has suffered greatly from the loss of income.
Rob Muir, a British conservationist working with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), is leading efforts to increase the monitoring of gorillas as well as combat illegal charcoal trading. Funding, via groups like Wildlife Direct, helps support their efforts and the poorly resourced rangers.
