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Rwanda, an African nation, celebrated 18 rare baby mountain gorillas at an annual event to highlight the plight of the endangered species.

The baby gorillas, however, were not physically present at the colourful ceremony at the edge of a national park where the primates live. However, eighteen people wearing gorilla masks were there instead.  The party included songs and dances and was even attended by Rwandan Prime Minister Bernard Makuza.

To promote the continued well-being of the mountain gorillas, the Rwandan government planned to get more land for the park, and in turn, promote the local tourism industry. A total of 103 gorillas have been registered and officially received a name so far. The world’s last mountain gorillas are concentrated in the mountains straddling the border between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.  They number around 700 in all, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Tags: baby gorilla, Bernard Makuza, conservation, endangered species, Mountain gorilla, national park, primates, Rwanda, tourism, volcanic park

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Nature, News4u. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.