9781422279144

Rangers find skulls as evidence of poaching activity.

in a bloody and complicated civil war. It was even becoming common for park rangers to be shot while trying to pro- tect the innocent animals under their care. The park was so dangerous that soon after taking his now-famous photo of Senkwekwe’s funeral procession, Stirton heard that the Congolese army was searching for him. Frightened by what they might do to him, he fled the country. Later, investigators discovered that the gorillas had been murdered as a warning. The Democratic Republic of Congo was the site of a thriving illegal trade in charcoal. Charcoal is made from hardwood, which could be found in abundance where the gorillas lived, on the edges of the dormant Mike- no volcano in Virunga’s southern sector. A few devoted

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