A World in Pictures- Chelsea Southworth

A murdered king is carried through the forest like royalty, his dead family following close behind. Senkwekwe was the patriarch of a small family of mountain gorillas that lived on the Virunga mountains- until they were brutally killed in cold blood.
When this photograph and others were published in the National Geographic Magazine, people all over the world were as shocked and saddened as the park rangers who found the bodies. These dead gorillas were once part of a species with only about 700 wild individuals and an important part of local ecotourism, but the reason for people's deep feelings of sadness went further than that. In the face of a gorilla is something that we as humans inherently recognize and connect with; there is an intelligence and a kindness of spirit in a gorilla's eyes that makes you wonder how on earth anyone could bear to kill such gentle creatures. I still remember the feelings of heartbreak and anger I felt when I saw this picture years ago. This image brought the extremely important issue of wildlife conservation to the forefront of international minds.