Concern over gorilla \\\'executions\\\'
Conservationists have expressed concern over the \\\"senseless and tragic\\\" killing of four mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The bodies of three females and one male were discovered by rangers earlier this week in the Virunga National Park.

Officials said the \\\"executions\\\" were not the work of poachers because they would have taken the bodies.

Since January, seven of the large apes in the region have been shot dead.

\\\"This is a senseless and tragic loss of some of the world\\\'s most endangered and beloved animals,\\\" said Deo Kujirakwinja of the Wildlife Conservation Society\\\'s (WCS) Congo programme.

\\\"This area must be immediately secured or we stand to lose an entire population of these animals,\\\" he added.

\\\'Scare tactics\\\'

Because poachers would have sold the bodies as food or trophies, conservationists think the apes were killed by a group that was trying to scare wardens out of the park.

The WCS said the protected area was coming under increasing pressure from \\\"outside exploitation\\\", including the charcoal trade.

\\\"Whatever the motive underlying this tragedy, the gorillas are helpless pawns in a feud between individuals,\\\" said Mark Rose, chief executive of Fauna and Flora International.

\\\"We are deeply concerned about this incident, which follows more than 20 years of successful collaboration for mountain gorilla conservation.\\\"

A census carried out in 2004 estimated that 380 gorillas, more than half of the world\\\'s population, lived in the national park and surrounding Virunga volcanoes region.

The latest killings take the number of shootings in the area to seven. Earlier this year, two silverback male gorillas were shot dead in the same area of the park, while a female was killed in May.

Although we didn\'t pull the trigger are we as tourist partly to blame?
In a non tourist environment would it not had been almost to get close enough to shoot these creatures? Would they not have moved away from man?
Else where it is mentioned of tourist interfering with cheetah hunts, but just by being there are we not part of the problem?
Are our vehicles not now part of bush craft for the animals?
As in \" Look a group of jeeps must be lions! Lets go the other way\" Said the Gazelles.
\" Look a group of jeeps must be a kill! Let\'s take a look\" Said the hyenas.
Cheetahs are now using jeeps as vantage points, is this fair on the gazelles?

As bushdrummers we like to think we\'re different but are we not \"Wolves in sheep\'s clothing\"??

kipper i agree partly with you!
of course humans are a part of the problem.
but to minimize the impact there have to be some regulations invented!
also the destinations have to better protect their wildlife assets!
i by far have not a clue what to do .........
the only thing we can do is disencourgae any guide to get closer. use our common sense and fight wherever we see unjustice done to the animals - especially when on safari and write down each license plate and report drivers which conduct in a rude way to the wildlife service personnell.

waiting for your resumee out of that

I prefer stupidity...............It really hurts when I try thinking!

"Thanks for your note. I share your sentiments that already Mara is over crowded both by

Minibus drives and the ever increasing camps that are coming up each day.

Total confusion, each day a new camp is coming up it is now like a village."

i received today the lines above sent by a kenyan travel agent!

I was stopped & asked twice by minibus drivers in the Serengeti where was the best place to go & how to get to somewhere!
Just call me Bwana-kipper.......I never let on I was also lost!

By this time I had built up a rapport with real guides who we had met at different locations & were given help & guidance by them.
If any are reading this "Thanks Gentlemen"
A couple of guides even bought their guests to see us at our camp sites "The mad English people living with the lions!" Always introduced with a twinkle in the eye & a smile.
Kath always accused me of playing it up, my answer was we would be part of the tale to tell of their safari back at home....Any way we would never meet them again....I hope!

sounds familiar to me:

my husband and i spent some days in yogyakarta (java/indonesia) in a hotel next to the old king's palace in 1985. the hotel's garden was on the palace's ground. when we had enough of our siesta by the swimmingpool we once went walking through the garden - wearing swimmshorts and bikini; in 1985 i weight roughly 50 kilos/1.75m tall).
there was nobody around and we also went to the palace and opend one or the other door peeping into the old very nicely furnished rooms.
oops - when we came out of one of the rooms we were surounded by japanes tourists (approx 20 of them) working their cameras. the obvious group leader approached us and asked if his group members can take a picture of us. we didn't have time to think, nodded....they arranged us nicely in a flowered corner of the wall and took their pictures. they thanked us overwhelmingly and left..............
and we started thinking that they now travel back to japan introducing us to their family and friends as queen and king of java :-O)

and still when we think of that incident we imagine their homemade stories and lough..........