Eco-Friendly Kids’ Books: Looking for Miza: The True Story of a Mountain Gorilla Family
This fall, a heartwarming book titled Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of their Own by Juliana Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Dr. Paula Kahumbu will be released to raise awareness of the endangered mountain gorillas. Last summer, ten of the world’s remaining 700 mountain gorillas were tragically massacred. This book was born out of the true story of Miza, who’s mother was killed, and a need to educate children, teachers, and parents about the mountain gorilla crisis.
The beautiful photographs by Perter Greste of Miza and her family help tell her incredible tale. Miza is a young gorilla living in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where just over half of the world’s mountain gorillas live. In June 2007, park rangers Innocent and Diddy discovered that Miza and her mother were missing from their family group. They immediately began looking for Miza, as her survival was at stake. What surprised the rangers was that Kibirizi, the family group’s silverback, also went looking for Miza and her mother.
As the head of the family group, Kibrizi was responsible for protecting the 31 gorillas in his family. Before he began his search for Miza, he took his family high into Mount Mikeno to hide in his absence. After several days, Kibrizi returned with Miza, but her mother was never found. Miza’s mother was one of the ten massacred mountain gorillas. Miza almost died without her mother’s care, but she was adopted by her big sister and learned to eat on her own.
