Anti-poaching ranger’s extraordinary selfies with two gorillas that look almost HUMAN

Two gorillas at the Virunga National Park in Congo looked extraordinarily human-like as they posed for a selfie with anti-poaching rangers.

Virunga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has 600 dedicated rangers and two of them snapped the heartwarming series of selfies.

One shows the gorillas standing upright behind the men, while another titled ‘family time’ shows one of the rangers, Patrick Sadiki with the primates, Ndakasi and Matabishi cuddling up to him.

Two gorillas at the Virunga National Park in Congo looked human-like as they posed for a selfie

The latest picture, posted on Thursday, garnered over 12 thousand likes and 14 thousand shares on Facebook.

It was titled ‘another day at the office’ and one person, Pernilla Winterskiöld replied: ‘Wow, that is an awesome office you’ve got there. Stay safe and thank you for the amazing work you do.’

According to the park’s website, the site has been ‘deeply’ impacted by war and armed conflict over the last two decades and so the fearless work of the rangers is crucial.

Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has 600 dedicated rangers

‘These local men and women go through intensive training, risking their lives on a daily basis to safeguard the park’s exceptional wildlife, including the last of the world’s critically endangered mountain gorillas,’ the website reads.

All of the rangers go through an extensive six-month training regime to become guardians of the park.

They are all from local Congolese towns and villages and need support to continue their vital work.

The rangers are the guardians of the park that was primarily gazetted to protect the endangered Mountain Gorillas that call it home.

The park revealed earlier this month on their Facebook page that two of their rangers had died due to the ‘force of nature’, as they put it.

One man, Hakizimana Sinamenye Chadrack, died on March 29 from injuries sustained in an attack by a hippo when he was gathering water at the edge of a river.

All of the rangers go through an extensive six-month training regime to become guardians

Mozambican Ranger Abase Carrimo died from injuries relating to lightning just days later.

‘Hippos are magnificent animals but they are very wary of humans, especially given the increase of poaching hippos for their ivory teeth. In this case, it was a hippo mother, who had a calf with her,’ the park said in a release.

Virunga National Park is a national park in the Albertine Rift Valley in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It was created in 1925 and is among the first protected areas in Africa. In altitude, it ranges from 680 m in the Semliki River valley to 5,109 m in the Rwenzori Mountain.

Around 400 gorillas, in around 10 groups led by males flow freely between the Rwandan protected area and Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Virunga National Park.