Volcanoes National Park

Volcanoes National Park

The Volcanoes National Park, covering an area of 160 square kilometers in northern Rwanda, is part of the large Virunga Volcanoes Conservation Region, which also includes the Virunga National Park in Congo and the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. Originally a small area around the Karisimbi, Mikeno and Visoke volcanoes, it was created to protect Mountain Gorillas threatened with extinction due to poaching. By 1929, the Volcanoes National Park was extended to Rwanda and the then Belgian Congo, and was renamed Albert National Park, managed and run by the Belgian Colonial Authorities. In the early 1960s, the park was divided when Rwanda and Congo became independent, and by the end of the decade the park had been reduced to almost half its original size. The park later became a base for the American naturalist Dian Fossey, where she conducted her research on gorillas. She came in 1967 and established the Karisoke Research Centre between Karisimbi and Visoke. She is widely credited with saving the gorillas from extinction by raising awareness of their plight in the international community. She was murdered in her home in 1985 by unknown assailants, often thought to be the poachers she had spent her life fighting. She was buried at the research center next to the grave of her favorite gorilla, Digit. Besides Mountain Gorillas, the park is home to Golden Monkeys, Spotted Hyenas, buffalos, elephants, Black-Fronted Duiker and bushbuck. The park is also home to 178 species of birds, including at least 29 endemic species in the Rwenzori Mountains and Virunga.