Gorilla Poaching | National Geographic

just got some musing on the radio I’m
not really sure the details but it
sounds like the patrol have picked up
some poachers with gorilla meat on their
hands and so we’re gonna head over there
right now and find out what’s going on
throughout the Congo Basin gorillas face
two huge threats logging and poaching
to reach deeper into the forest logging
companies build roads the roads allow
poachers to follow and to ship their
catch to market
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Oh
at its current rate the legal hunting
could wipe out the last of the wild
lowland gorillas in a decade sorry
mother in London oh goody obviously seen
lots of pictures and books but I um
nothing can really prepare you for for
that reality it’s warm from sitting on
this it’s as if you were holding you
know that the warmth as if it were alive
but obviously I mean you’re holding a
hand of a gorilla that was once running
around an uncle trippy Keith gee it
looks like a juvenile females most of
the meat is eaten but poachers sever the
hands and feet for souvenirs
a dead gorilla can bring five US dollars
a tremendous sum for most here the
challenge is to make a real is more
valuable than that alive
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I had to walk away from from what we
were filming the guerrilla remains that
had been confiscated from the poachers
because it just became too difficult for
me to stand there and hold the hands and
the smell and having just seen these
beautiful animals
I’m distraught and the scent is
lingering on my hands
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