A SELFIE taken by a park ranger in Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with two gorillas who appear to be posing for the camera has gone viral.

The female gorillas stand casually behind park ranger Mathieu Shamavu and look straight at the camera, as another ranger, Patrick Sadiki, looks on in the background. The photo, first posted on Shamavu’s Facebook page April 20 and on the park’s Facebook page two days later, delighted online users, who called the photos “magnificent” and the “best selfie ever.”

The park wrote in the photo caption that the gorillas are “always acting cheeky so this was the perfect shot of their true personalities.”

The orphaned gorillas were raised by rangers at the park’s Senkwekwe Center after their mothers were killed in July 2007, according to the BBC. They were 2 and 4 months old at the time.

Shamavu and Sadiki frequently share photos of the gorillas they protect on social media.

“We love our work because we protect these animals,” Shamavu tweeted in 2018.

Shamavu is part of the park’s Elite Anti-Poaching Units And Combat Trackers group, which is tasked with protecting the animals.

A team of more than 600 rangers undergoes “intensive training, risking their lives on a daily basis to safeguard the park’s exceptional wildlife”, according to the Virunga National Park website.

Around one-third of the world’s population of critically endangered mountain gorillas live in the park’s lush volcanic forests.(SD-Agencies)