No matter who you are, whether a human or an animal, losing a mother would fill your heart with emptiness and sadness. The touching photo taken at the Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo by photographer Phil Moore proves exactly that.
A baby gorilla that resides at this sanctuary has just lost her mother to poachers and he needed someone to be by his side and assure him that things were going to be just fine.
Luckily, a park ranger named Patrick Karabaranga was there to comfort the sweet gorilla and help him heal his broken heart. The photo vent viral and it touched the hearts of the millions who got to see it.
It showed the devastating results of poaching and wild animals trafficking.
This gorilla is one of the four young gorillas who are orphans and share the same destiny.
Virunga National Park is the home of around 200 mountain gorillas who make the quarter of the population of their kind.
Mountain gorillas are critically endangered species. One of the reasons for this devastating situation is that their natural habitat, the rainforests, are destroyed by greedy humans who profit from logging, agriculture and mining. The infrastructure big corporations build makes it easier for poachers to get into the forests and kill gorillas for their meat.
What humans do to this planet Earth and its inhabitants is sad and devastating. If we don’t put an end to the deforestation many wild animals will go extinct in the years to come.