{"id":61513,"date":"2020-02-11T11:06:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61513"},"modified":"2020-02-11T11:06:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T03:06:37","slug":"uganda-four-rare-mountain-gorillas-die-in-lightning-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=61513","title":{"rendered":"Uganda: Four rare mountain gorillas ‘die in lightning strike’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Members of the Hirwa group were photographed in 2012.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0KAMPALA, Feb 11\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—<\/strong>Four rare mountain gorillas, including a pregnant female, have died in Uganda after being hit by lightning, a conservation group says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three adult females and a male infant were found in Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park with “gross lesions” on their bodies indicating electrocution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC) called this a “big loss for the species”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are just over 1,000 mountain gorillas in existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The species is restricted to protected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four that died were part of a 17-member group, which has been called the Hirwa family by the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hirwa group had crossed the border from Rwanda into Uganda last year and had been living in Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mgahinga is in the Virunga Massif range of mountains which straddle the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Seguya, executive secretary of the GVTC, said that the 13 surviving members of the Hirwa family have been found and are feeding well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samples from the post-mortem are currently being tested and confirmation of the cause of death is expected within the next three weeks, GVTC said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2018, the mountain gorilla was removed from the list of critically endangered species, after intensive conservation efforts, including anti-poaching patrols, paid off. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Hirwa group were photographed in 2012. \u00a0KAMPALA, Feb 11\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—Four rare mountain gorillas, including a pregnant female, have died in Uganda after being hit by lightning, a conservation group says. The three adult females and a male infant were found in Uganda’s Mgahinga National Park with “gross lesions” on their bodies indicating electrocution. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61513"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61513\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}