1. Virunga National Park
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The world’s oldest, most
beautiful, intensely diverse, and
extremely endangered National
Park in Africa.
2. The History of Virunga
- Established in 1925
- Unesco World Heritage Site since 1979
- Africa’s most biologically diverse protected area
- The only park in the world to host three taxa of Great Apes: Mountain
gorillas, Eastern Lowland Grauer’s gorillas and Chimpanzees
- The only country to host the Okapi-a zebra like animal related to the
giraffe
- At this moment, there are 500 Park Rangers to protect the Virunga Park
5. Elephant Crisis
Due to a constant poacher threat, the elephant population has
gone from 3000 to only 200 (90% decrease).
Illegal ivory trade remains a problem and a constant threat to
humans, as well..
The need of a strong ranger presence and improvement of field
communications is crucial.
6. Elephant Project
- There are only 12 elephant families
- $10,000 / radio-tracking collar; this includes:
1. Cost of the collar
2. Collar operation:
- A small plane flies over the area, tracks
down an elephant family and locates the
leader.
- Ground team is on stand-by.
- A helicopter with a veterinarian on board
tranquilizes the elephant leader.
- Ground team puts on the collar while the
helicopter keeps the rest of the elephant
family at a distance.
- Start of project: June 23rd
, 2015
The Elephant Project
7. NeedsOverall Needs
~ Uniform and equipment
~ Tactical ranger training
~ Emergency first-aid training
~ Individual first-aid trauma kit
~ Deployment costs (vehicles,
fuel, and maintenance)
~ Rations
~ Health care
~ Communications equipment
8. Elefante Trunk is working
alongside Virunga Alliance
to help save the Park and its
wildlife. We would love your
support!
http://virunga.org
Help us save Virunga National Park !
