{"id":109435,"date":"2019-04-21T18:03:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T17:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=109435"},"modified":"2019-04-21T18:15:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T17:15:56","slug":"gorillas-appear-to-pose-for-selfie-with-park-ranger-in-the-democratic-republic-of-congo-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=109435","title":{"rendered":"Gorillas appear to pose for selfie with park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A photo has emerged of what a park ranger claims to be a selfie with two gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

Ranger Mathieu Shamavu says the picture was taken at Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the park told Sky News the pair both lived in a specially designed unit which cares for gorilla orphans who have been victimised by poachers or animal traffickers.<\/p>\n

Mr Shamavu described his captivating composition as just “another day in the office”.<\/p>\n

He is part of the park’s Elite Anti-Poaching Units And Combat Trackers group, which is tasked with protecting the animals.<\/p>\n

A team of more than 600 rangers undergoes “intensive training, risking their lives on a daily basis to safeguard the park’s exceptional wildlife”, according to the Virunga National Park website.<\/p>\n

Around one third of the world’s population of critically endangered mountain gorillas live in the park’s lush volcanic forests.<\/p>\n

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More from Democratic Republic Of Congo<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The rangers have previously posted several photos of them exceptionally close to gorillas.<\/p>\n

A Virunga National Park spokesperson said the pair were “friendly” because they were used to human contact in the Senkwekwe Centre for Gorilla Orphans.<\/p>\n

Yvonne Ndege, a spokesperson for UNHCR Kenya, re-posted the image on Twitter, writing: “Selfie of the Year no question!”<\/p>\n

Thousands of people responded to the image on Facebook, with one user saying: “Wow, that is an awesome office you’ve got there. Stay safe and thank you for the amazing work you do.”<\/p>\n

Another user simply said: “Now that’s a selfie!”<\/p>\n

With the photograph being shared thousands of times across social media, supporters have urged people to “make a difference” and donate to Virunga’s conservation efforts.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A photo has emerged of what a park ranger claims to be a selfie with two gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ranger Mathieu Shamavu says the picture was taken at Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A spokesperson for the park told Sky News the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8210],"class_list":["post-109435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-dr-congo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}