Fact Check: Anti-Poaching Ranger Took Selfie With Gorillas He Was Protecting?

Claim:

A picture shows a park ranger taking a selfie with two gorillas he was protecting.

Rating:

True ( About this rating? )

A popular photo of gorillas and park rangers posing for a selfie saw renewed attention in August 2024 when the X account Creepy.org shared it, asking whether gorillas were "really this friendly with humans?"

The photo authentically shows friendly human-gorilla relations, but it is important to note that these are not ordinary gorillas. They are orphans who have been raised with humans since infancy.

In April 2019, Mathieu Shamavu, a ranger at Virunga National Park in eastern Congo, took a photo of himself with two orphaned gorillas under his care:

The picture was wildly popular and went viral shortly after it was posted to social media. It has periodically gone viral several times since then, including in an April 2021 Reddit thread titled "Anti-poacher takes selfie with gorillas they are protecting."

This is an accurate description of the photo. As reported by The Associated Press in 2019, Shamavu "said he was checking his phone when he noticed two female orphaned gorillas, Ndakazi and Ndeze, mimicking his movements, so he took a picture with them." According to Virunga National Park, these "gorilla gals are always acting cheeky so this was the perfect shot of their true personalities!"

The two gorillas were orphaned by the actions of poachers, Shamavu explained, which is a persistent threat in the Virunga region. In May 2020, rumors circulated that Shamavu and the two gorillas pictured were killed by poachers. While an attack in April 2020 did take the lives of several rangers , the park confirmed to Reuters that neither Shamavu nor the two gorillas he was pictured with were victims of this attack.

Because the photo is real and accurately described, the claim is "True."

Sources:

"Congo Park Ranger Tells of Taking Viral Selfie with Gorillas." Yahoo News, 25 Apr. 2019, https://sg.news.yahoo.com/congo-park-ranger-tells-taking-182039200.html .

virungaorg. "Armed Attack - Updated Statement." Virunga National Park, 24 Apr. 2020, https://virunga.org/news/updated-statement-from-virunga-national-park-on-recent-attack/ .

"You Might Have Recently Seen Caretakers Mathieu and Patrick's Amazing Selfie with Female Orphaned Gorillas Ndakazi and Ndeze inside the Senkwekwe Center at Virunga National Park." Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/virunga/posts/10157037198360782 . Accessed 2 Aug. 2024.