(NECN/ICCN/APTV) - Two baby mountain gorillas, who survived a 2007 attack on a national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which left them orphaned, have been settling into their new home at the Senkwekwe Centre in Virunga National Park.
Ndeze and Ndakasi, the two-and-a-half year old female baby gorillas, had been living in a house in the bustling city of Goma since 2007, due to the ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN).
The gorillas were moved to the Senkwekwe Centre, in Rumangado, earlier this week and were quickly adapting to their new home, despite the potential stress of a change of environment, said Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park.
"The forest of the Senkwekwe Centre is their natural environment, it is extremely different to the only environment which they have ever known, which is a very noisy, uncomfortable environment in Goma," de Merode said.
"The change can bring about a certain amount of stress but amazingly they seemed very happy from the start. So they arrived at Senkwekwe and immediately started exploring the forest and immediately started tearing down the vegetation which is a very natural reaction for playful baby gorillas," he explained.
Virunga National Park Communications Director, Samantha Newport, called moving Ndeze and Ndakasi to Senkwekwe "a big step and a positive step."
Newport added that "ideally we would love for them to be re-introduced into the wild but at the moment they are too young and we still need to see how they develop at their new home."
The Senkwekwe Centre was named after Ndeze and Ndakasi's father, a silverback gorilla who was killed during the 2007 attack. The image of villagers hoisting Senkwekwe's huge corpse on a bamboo trellis was circulated around the world.
Virunga National Park, was established in 1925 and is Africa's oldest national park, and in 1979 was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It is home to 200 of the of the world's 720 remaining mountain gorillas and a small population of eastern lowland gorillas.
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