A park famed for rare gorillas gears up to fight Ebola and protect its primates

Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo is home to several hundred mountain gorillas -- about a third of the population. Rangers are setting up checkpoints to screen visitors for Ebola and trying to protect the primates, who are very vulnerable to the virus. Roberto Schmidt/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption

When Emmanuel de Merode looks around, it's a picture of serenity.

"Most evenings there are elephants crossing the river and pods of hippos," says de Merode, director of the Virunga National Park, which encompasses about 2 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Mitumba Mountains, home to lowland gorillas, rise up before him. Behind him are the Rwenzori Mountains with glaciers and snow-capped tops beside the equator.

"It is one of the most beautiful places in the world," he says.

But beyond this picturesque scene, there is a volatile combination of brutal rebel violence and a burgeoning Ebola outbreak. De Merode and his team of over 800 park rangers are on the front lines as they try to combat both of those threats with severely limited resources.

In a region that's seen decades of bloody wars and a 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, de Merode says the past few weeks stand out. "The situation we're living through now is certainly the worst we've experienced in the past 30 years," he says.

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