In this song, Congolese musician Popal Issey (centre, in jacket) pays tribute to Mt Tshiaberimu with his song “Wale Wale.” To the right of him are Mike Peterson and Jon Simonson, who travelled from Tanzania to do a feasibility study for a lodge
The video above was made in 2005 by Greg Cummings, and shows a new ranger patrol post under construction at Mt Tshiaberimu - paid for with a donation from Robert Del Naja, lead singer of the British group Massive Attack. (The audio was disabled by YouTube for reasons of copyright).
Greg Cummings, a DRC park ranger, and project manager Jean Claude Kyungu
A small population of Eastern gorillas, once believed to be their own sub-species, Gorilla rex pygmalion, live within Congo’s Virunga National Park, on the steep slopes of Mt Tshiaberimu. At 2,900 m, Mt Tshiaberimu, or ‘Mountain of the Spirits’, is the highest point on the western escarpment of the Albertine Rift, rising a staggering 1,700 m above Lake Edward, Semliki River, and the Rwizi Plains, which separate it from the Rwenzoris (see map and satellite image).
Because this
rare gorilla population is isolated from other gorilla habitats in the Rift, Mt Tshiaberimu is a conservation area of great scientific importance.
In 1998, when with a donation from bestselling author Michael Crichton the Gorilla Organization started supporting their protection, there were only 16 gorillas remaining on the mountain. Ten years later, after an intensive programme of community-based projects and close monitoring by teams of rangers, the population had increased by 25% to 20.
