Mountain gorillas protected with new deal?

It looks like mountain gorillas in Congo's National park Virunga will get a decent chance for survival after the deal was struck between rebels and government to allow park rangers return back to forest habitats to monitor gorillas families. Until now in this war zone there hasn't been rangers for one year since the time rebels seized control of these jungle area in late 2007.

But fortunately for mountain gorillas all sides in the conflict accepted the importance of mountain gorillas preservation in Virunga, and park rangers will finally have the chance to yet again monitor gorilla population, and to see effect of civil war had on gorilla population. According to latest study there are around 700 gorillas left in the world, of which 190 has its habitats in Congo. It will be interesting to see how many of these 190 Congo gorillas survived until now. Some officials like Benjamin Nsana (park guide in the rebel zone) say that no gorillas had died over the last year — not from poaching, disease, crossfire or anything else because in this area rebels patrolled the park's outskirts thoroughly.

Return of park rangers in Virunga should help mountain gorilla population

Whether this is true or not, one thing is sure though, namely that return of park rangers is a good news for mountain gorillas in Congo. But with so frequent civil wars in and around this area you really can never tell what is going to happen next. For now it looks good, but the question still remains for how long?