May 17, 2010 - The first iPhone and iTouch application dedicated to protecting the critically endangered Mountain Gorilla has been launched. Now the millions of iPhone and iTouch users worldwide can download the app to follow the daily lives of the Mountain Gorillas and stay up-to-date with the efforts of the Rangers to protect Virunga National Park. The app, that costs $3.99 from iTunes, allows users to select a gorilla family, find out about individual members and follow them through blogs and videos, direct from the remote forests of eastern DR Congo.
"The survival of Congo's Mountain Gorillas relies on our ability to reach out to individuals around the world who care, and to keep them informed on a daily, even hourly basis, of the Rangers' efforts to protect the wildlife in Virunga National Park", said Emmanuel de Merode, Director of Virunga National Park. "iGorilla provides us with exactly that opportunity."
"I was fortunate enough to travel to Virunga in 2006 and was amazed by the Mountain Gorillas and the incredible individuals who carry out the dangerous and sometimes deadly conservation work," said I-SITE CEO Ian Cross. "This app seemed an obvious way to give back and support the cause."
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc, and released in 2007.
The Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) and its Rangers work throughout the country to protect the National Parks of Congo and their wildlife from poachers, rebel groups, illegal miners and land invasions. Over 160 Rangers have been killed in the last 10 years protecting the 5 parks of eastern DRC, and Rangers worked throughout the civil war, rarely receiving a salary.
I-SITE has been designing websites and interactive media since 1996. The US company - based out of an old toy store in Philadelphia - has created websites and applications for scooters, magazines, kids, beverages, analgesics and plants.
Gorillas are the largest of the living primates. The Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is one of the two subspecies of Eastern Gorilla and is found in the Virunga volcanoes region of Central Africa and in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. The Lowland Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), also known as the Grauer's Gorilla, is a subspecies of Eastern Gorilla and is only found in the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest national park (established in 1925) and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is home to 200 of the world's mountain gorillas and a small population of eastern lowland gorillas. Formerly known as Albert National Park, Virunga lies in eastern DR Congo and covers 7,800 square kilometers. The park is managed by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN).
