Why are gorillas poached? This question is a bit disturbing question because the species reduce daily in the world no matter being protected in National Parks. In the last population census for mountain gorillas, it was recorded that the remaining gorillas add up to 1,000 individuals. The IUCN list had put it clear and mentioned that the species are endangered with less than 1,000 gorillas left and hunters or poachers were the main reason for hunting down these endangered species but this last census gave hope for the increase of gorillas in the world. This came as a result of the measures that were put in place to make sure that gorillas increase and cannot be poached any more.

Mountain gorillas have been increasing due to various factors which have favored their growth. Projects such as conservation projects were established to protect gorillas from poachers and some of the conservation areas are Mgahinga gorilla national park, Bwindi impenetrable national park, Virunga national park and Volcanoes national park. Not only conservation areas have led to the growth of gorillas but also park rangers and authorities have also done a great job like monitoring the gorillas closely, protecting the gorillas from poachers and also putting in place several measurements such as limiting number of tourists visiting a gorilla group per day in order to reduce the spread of human diseases to these primates.

Poaching is the killing, shooting, hunting of wild animals that are within the conservation area. Poaching is among the major factors leading to the extinction of wild animals. In the earlier years people were used to kill wild animals for commercial and subsistence use but when modernization came now, poaching is illegal in all national parks. They did this through putting several ways like if you found killing any wild animal from the national park, you must be punished to death. Parks that inhabit gorillas are managed almost 99% to ensure that no poaching happens in their areas like Mgahinga gorilla national park , Bwindi impenetrable national park and volcanoes national park.  In Virunga national park also poaching is pushing way through facilitating the people with the value of conserving the mountain gorillas but the park still has some challenges of the ignorant community whereby 170 park rangers have been killed in the 10 years because of trying to enforce non-poaching laws.

The major reason why animals generally are being poached by poachers is that high value of the animal parts on the black market. Poaches are tempted to kill animals to get ivory from rhinos and elephants to make money. Some poachers also kill wild animals to be respected by community members and to keep pets for prestige. Other animals are used as a source of food whereas some local people believe that animals can be used as medicine so that is why they kill them. While others are poached to be used for making goods from their skins like jewelry and bags.

Another reason why wild animals are poached is that one kills gorillas in self-defense as well as when is protecting the properties from these animals like crops on farm, cattle and many more. Poaching is also common in Africa this is due to the high poverty and also to the large number of scarce animal such as elephants and rhinos which are only found in Africa and this forces poachers to capture animals to get money. Some poaching case have been put on military groups that have got access to these wild animals in some countries.

Mountain gorillas are known to be poached for meat purposes which is commercial and domestically used. With sensitization of people in the community, a lot of improvement has been witnessed and this can be evidenced as the civil war in DR Congo caused by rebel groups ending and this is a great promise for the gorillas found in Virunga National Park to increase. These wars were among the main causes for the death of these animals because a lot of bombings, shootings and fires would take place at Mahura forest of Virunga which acted as a hiding place for the rebel groups.  The works of Park authorities together with the combination of park rangers, security team and community members has brought back the glory of these species. Since 2019, tourism has increased to 1,000 guests visiting the park since it was reopened in February.

You too, you can support this good cause for eliminating poaching by providing financial assistance to the parks projects. You can also have time and pass by the Park’s offices or you can contribute by booking a tour to the park because when you pay for the tour, some money portion helps to run the parks projects like paying park rangers. You can buy a commodity from the local people once you are in the country and this will make the locals know the importance of tourism in an area.