🦍 Two mountain gorillas stand up, look at the camera, and pose. It’s not a circus trick — it’s what they learned from living with humans in Virunga Park, Congo. Ndakasi and Ndeze were orphaned when poachers killed their mothers. The rangers raised them from infancy, risking their lives every day in one of the most dangerous areas of Africa to keep them alive.
In 2019, a selfie taken by ranger Mathieu Shamavu went viral around the world: the gorillas, standing upright, arms hanging down, looking straight ahead — almost like colleagues posing after a shift. The mountain gorilla has fewer than 1,000 individuals left in the wild. Each one has a ranger assigned to it. ⚠️