GORILLA YOUNGSTERS CAUGHT DESTROYING SNARES SET BY HUNTERS

There's been a new evolution in the animal kingdom... gorillas who have somehow figured out how to dismantle traps set by poachers.

The two four-year-old mountain gorillas, a male and a female, are named Rwema and Dukore. They were spotted dismantling traps set by poachers in the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Conservationists from the Karisoke Center witnessed the incredible moment when they were combing the forest themselves for snares.

John Ndayambaje, one of the trackers, spotted a snare very close to the Kuriyama gorilla clan. However, in his attempt to deactivate it, he was stopped by the grunts of Vubu, a silverback gorilla. That was when Rwema and Dukore sprang into action. The two ran towards the trap and, as Rwema jumped on the bent tree branch, Dukore freed the noose.

The gorillas then spotted another snare on the way and went over to it when a third gorilla joined in and help them dismantle it.

A week before the heroic acts from the gorillas, they faced a horrific tragedy when a juvenile gorilla, Ngwino, was the unfortunate victim of a hunter's snare in the forest. Ngwino got caught in the trap but was not able to break loose.

Veronica Vecellio is the Gorilla Program Coordinator at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Center. She added that "This is absolutely the first time that we've seen juveniles doing that… I don't know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares. Adult gorillas, especially silverbacks in the other group, have occasionally been caught in the snares. That was perhaps why the two juveniles were wary of the snares or aware of the dangers they pose."

Next, the gorilla's will be trapping the hunters in their own snares!