The animals that live in the Mikeno Sector have made the last three months difficult for the Rangers. When peace returned to the park the people living close to it went back to their normal daily lives, to their fields, and to their work as farmers. Their crops have proved enormously attractive to Mikeno’s elephants, buffaloes and gorillas. The animals have raided the fields many times and these raids have had remarkable and sometimes tragic consequences.

On one occasion four buffaloes were slaughtered, on another, a farmer was killed by an elephant and, on a third, vets and Rangers intervened to relocate the rampaging Mukunda away from temptation and danger.

This situation has proved challenging for the Rangers and they’ve spent a great deal of time and energy developing strategies to sort it out. The stakes, after all, are high. One villager has already lost his life, and Mukunda could easily have gone the same way. So it was important that the Rangers took a chance to act while they still had it, and moved Mukunda away from trouble.

But things haven’t been easy for Mukunda since his relocation. Following the move his behavior became increasingly erratic. He crossed the border as though being chased from Congo. Then, after a few days on the other side of the Rwanda Volcanoes National Park beyond the border, and having slightly wounded a guard and a soldier, he returned to the Mikeno Sector, by way of Kibumba.

Some days after his return to Congo he was rediscovered about 12 km from the park. He was attracting a great deal of attention from both resident villagers and people traveling in vehicles on the road between Goma and Rumangabo. The people of Kibumba took a dim view: the Silverback, though fascinating, was becoming increasingly destructive and something had to be done before the situation got any worse. Once again the practical and expedient solution was relocation. So for the second time the Rangers moved Mukunda. But this time he traveled from Kibumba towards Bukima, in the opposite direction from his last journey.

But Mukunda has not changed his ways.   The people living along the edge of the park – this time between Jomba and Bikenge – are complaining about him again. He’s been raiding their crops. To make matters worse it’s the dry season and times are hard. The park authorities have come up with a solution that will hopefully kill two birds with one stone: an electric fence.

The fence will run about 50 km from Jomba – on the border with Uganda – to the border with Rwanda in the south of the park. If everything goes according to plan then the fence will not only protect both people and crops, but also free the Rangers from the labor intensive tasks of keeping the animals out of the fields, and the villagers placated. All our fingers are crossed that this project is successful.