Uganda’s Wildlife authorities have arrested four men connected to the killing of a 25-year-old male gorilla, the leader of a group and hugely popular with tourists in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
The silverback gorilla, named Rafiki, was killed after it went missing on June 1. Its body was found the next day.
One of the arrested men, who had been found in possession of wild hog meat, rope and wire snares and spears, “confessed to killing the gorilla in self-defence”, the state-run Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said in a statement on Friday yesterday.
He claimed the gorilla had charged at him while he and a colleague were hunting.
Africa-News reports that the four men had been arrested “after a postmortem report revealed that the Silverback sustained an injury by a sharp device/object that penetrated its left upper part of the abdomen up to the internal organs”.
One of the arrested men had been found in possession of wild hog meat, rope and wire snares and spears. Africa-News added.