A survey of Virunga National Park in the Congo, the first in sixteen months, found 81 mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Mikeno sector despite poaching and civil war in the area. In 2007 rangers found 72 gorillas. Virunga is one of Africa's oldest parks created in 1925 on the eastern border with Uganda and Rwanda, and it brings in $3 million annually from ecotourism, most to the home of the mountain gorilla. However park rangers were removed from the area by the government in September 2007. Negotiations with a separatist leader allowed the return of park rangers whose fierce dedication to the gorillas make it possible to continue to protect one of two remaining habitats of our wild relative under challenging conditions. World Wildlife Fund has been working for twenty years to preserve the park and is currently assisting war refugees encamped on the park's borders with food and firewood from sustainable sources. During the survey rangers found more than 500 snares placed by poachers with hundreds more remaining hidden.[photo: young gorilla in the Virunga Mts., courtesy thundafunda.com]