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Yale Environment 360 has an excellent story on the various animals in this protected area, including the warden and those he is committed to protecting, but also the beasts who prey on those wards. Supporting national parks, wherever they may be and at whatever risk, has never been more critical:

The Perils and Rewards of Protecting Congo’s Gorillas

Virunga National Park, home to one of the last remaining populations of mountain gorillas, has witnessed years of war and civil strife. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, the park’s warden describes the lethal threats faced by his rangers and the remarkable survival of the park’s gorillas.

It is difficult to imagine a more dangerous place to be a wildlife conservationist than the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which for decades has been ravaged by war and civil strife that has left several million people dead. But it is against this backdrop that Emmanuel de Merode has waged a five-year struggle to protect Congo’s Virunga National Park, the oldest national park in Africa and home to one of the last sizeable populations of mountain gorillas.

De Merode, 43, is the chief warden of Virunga, a UNESCO World Heritage site that encompasses nearly 2 million acres of forests, mountains, savannahs, and volcanoes. It is home to a wide variety of iconic fauna, including elephant, rhinoceros, chimpanzees, hippopotamus, and more than 200 mountain gorillas — 20 percent of the world’s remaining population.

Read the whole story here.