The Forest, 2007
Virunga National Park sits in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the few places on earth where mountain gorillas still live in the wild. In 2007, rangers working a patrol found something no one wants to find: a female gorilla shot dead by poachers.
Clinging to the body was her infant. Two months old. Alive. The rangers named her Ndakasi.
Bare Chest, First Months
A two-month-old gorilla cannot regulate her own body heat. She cannot survive alone. Ranger Andre Bauma made a decision. He unbuttoned his shirt and held Ndakasi against his bare chest, skin to skin, for warmth and for the calm that comes from contact.
He did this for months. He slept holding her. He walked the grounds holding her. She stayed alive.
Growing Up
Ndakasi grew. She never returned fully to the wild. She had known humans since before she could eat solid food, and the rangers of Virunga were her family in every sense the word can carry.
She was curious and quick and sociable. She learned the faces of the people around her and greeted them accordingly. Some of those people had known her since she weighed less than a bag of rice.
The Photograph
In 2019, a photograph taken inside Virunga spread across the internet. It showed Ndakasi and another gorilla named Ndeze standing upright, side by side, posing with two rangers for what looked unmistakably like a selfie. Their expressions were composed. The rangers were grinning.
The image was real and unposed. It traveled to every corner of the world. People who had never heard of Virunga, had never thought about mountain gorillas, stopped and looked at it.
The Long Illness
In 2021, Ndakasi became seriously ill. The rangers who had cared for her all her life stayed close. Andre Bauma, the man who had first held her against his chest fourteen years earlier, did not leave her side.
She declined slowly over weeks. She ate less. She rested more. The people around her knew what was coming.
Fourteen Years
Ndakasi died in September 2021, in Bauma's arms. She was fourteen years old. In his statement afterward, Bauma described their relationship as that of a father and daughter.
The photograph of the selfie is still out there, still circulating. Two gorillas standing upright in the forest, grinning at the camera. If you look at it now knowing how the story ends, it carries more weight than it did before.
Field Notes
- Ndakasi was found in 2007 as a two-month-old infant in Virunga National Park, DRC, clinging to her mother's body after poachers shot the mother dead.
- Ranger Andre Bauma carried her against his bare chest for the first months of her life to provide warmth and comfort, the method recommended for infant primate survival.
- She was raised by park rangers at Virunga and never reintegrated fully into the wild.
- In 2019, a photograph of Ndakasi and another gorilla appearing to pose for a selfie with two rangers went viral worldwide.
- Ndakasi died in September 2021 at age 14. Andre Bauma's public statement described their bond as that of a father and daughter.
Support Virunga National Park
Virunga National Park in the eastern DRC is Africa's oldest national park and home to roughly a third of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. The rangers who protect them do so at great personal risk. Andre Bauma is one of them.
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