One of the greatest shocks that we can get in life is losing our parents.
It is never easy to get over this huge loss. In fact, this is something not only humans but also the other species feel.
A photo taken by wildlife photographer Phil Moore recently got a lot of attention on social media.
The photo is undoubtedly one of the saddest photos of an animal to be captured ever. It shows a park ranger comforting a gorilla who was mourning the death of his mother.
The poor gorilla had lost his mum to the poachers.
The park ranger who decided to comfort the gorilla at this difficult time was Patrick Karabanga, an employee of Virunga National Park, Eastern Congo.
This region of Congo is among some of the most dangerous places on the planet.
The area constantly sees armed conflicts that endanger the life of people as well as wildlife and the situation has been going on for more than 20 years now.
Virunga National Park has a team of 600 rangers who are devoted to protecting the wildlife in the natural reserve.
Even though the rangers have received extensive training before starting the job and are prepared to face any sort of situation, the job is not easy at all. They risk their life almost every day.
Still, the devoted rangers do their best to protect the wildlife in the national park.
As a species that needs a great deal of protection, the rangers go to all lengths to ensure the safety of endangered mountain gorillas.
The national park has an estimated population of 200 gorillas. These gorillas have a life expectancy of nearly 40 years but hunting by poachers decreases their life expectancy substantially.
The species is among the most severely endangered species on the planet, with a total of 800 present worldwide.
The photo, captured in 2012, shows something we don’t see every day.
It is a documentary proof of the fact that animals do have feelings and if approached in the right manner, they can express their feelings in the same way as we humans do.
In the photo, you can see Patrick hugging the grieving gorilla to comfort him.
He sat with the animal, putting his arm over his shoulder while the gorilla placed his hand on Patrick’s leg, a symbol of gratitude for helping him in his hard time.
This national park is not the natural habitat of the mountain gorilla as they live in the rainforests. This gorilla and his three other orphaned siblings were brought to this national reserve to save them from the poachers.
Poaching and rapid deforestation have made the gorillas nearly extinct. But thankfully, park rangers are always there to protect these animals at every cost.
Replaced!