Rafiki The Beloved Gorilla killed by Poachers.
In the southern gorilla sector of Bwindi, the dominant silverback of the renowned Nkuringo gorilla family was Rafiki, the adored gorilla who was slain by poachers in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The Uganda Wildlife Authority launched a search for Rafiki on June 2, 2020, after he was reported missing on June 1, 2020.
Employees of the Uganda Wildlife Authority discovered Rafiki dead in the Hakato region of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. After doing a post-mortem, they discovered that the silverback had been injured by a sharp instrument or gadget that had entered its left upper abdomen and reached its internal organs.
To find the potential killers of Rafiki, the Uganda Wildlife Authority searched the area. As a result, on June 7, 2020, four men were taken into custody after Byamukama Felix, a resident of Murole Village in the Kisoro area, was discovered at his house on June 4th with bush pig flesh and a number of hunting tools, including spears, rope snares, wire snares, and a dog hunting bell.
When Byamukama saw the gorilla group while hunting in the park with a single Bampabenda Evarist, he admitted to murdering Rafiki in self-defense, which is against the law. When the gorilla rushed at them, he stabbed it with a spear, killing it.
He went on to disclose that he shared the bush pig flesh with other poachers Mubangizi Yonasi and Museveni Valence. If proven guilty of murdering an endangered species, these four poachers face a life sentence or a fine of $5.4 million. They are presently being held at the Kisoro Police station for trial in the legal system.
Poachers murdered Rafiki, a beloved gorilla who belonged to the renowned Nkuringo gorilla family and the Nkuringo gorilla territory in the UNESCO-designated Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which is home to over half of the world’s mountain gorilla population. In the Nkuringo gorilla area, which is south of Bwindi, the Nkuringo family was the first habituated gorilla family. Since the Nkuringo gorilla family was habituated in 1997, visitors may go gorilla trekking there.
The family consisted of 17 individuals at the time of the poaching of Rafiki, the adored gorilla, who was the lone silverback and hence the dominant one, along with 3 Blackbacks, 8 adult females, 2 juveniles, and 3 newborns.
Rafiki was said to have been around 25 years old when he passed away. Rafiki’s death makes the organization unstable and raises the prospect of its dissolution. Since the poachers murdered the adored and dominating Rafiki, the Nkuringo gorilla family has a leadership void that may be filled by a wild silverback.
Following successful conservation efforts by the corresponding government wildlife organizations and gorilla conservation groups, which included anti-poaching patrols, mountain gorillas were taken off the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s list of critically endangered species in 2018. It is a huge blow that Rafiki was killed after so much public and local awareness of the advantages of gorilla tourism and tourism in general was raised in the communities around protected areas.
The Virunga Conservation Area and Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are the only places where mountain gorillas, an endangered ape species, may be found.
Rafiki The Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, and the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are all included in the Beloved Gorilla murdered by poachers.
Approximately 1063 mountain gorillas remain in the world today. Gorillas are in risk of becoming severely endangered or maybe becoming extinct in the near future due to factors including poaching, encroachment on protected areas, civil upheaval, illnesses, and more.
