Four endangered mountain gorillas, including three adult females, have been killed by an apparent lightning strike in a Ugandan national park, a conservation group has said.

A post-mortem examination has been performed on the four, including a male infant, who died on 3 February in Mgahinga National Park in south-west Uganda.

“Based on the gross lesions from the post-mortem … the tentative cause of death for all four individuals is likely to be electrocution by lightning,” the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration said in a statement on Saturday. Laboratory confirmation will take two to three weeks.

The four were members of a group of 17 known as the Hirwa family, which had crossed into the Mgahinga national park in August last year from Volcanoes national park in neighbouring Rwanda.

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• Πηγή: the guardian
• Ετικέτες: gorillas, Uganda