The last time there was a sighting of Bouvier’s red colobus disco was all the rage, the Internet was non-existent, and Madonna still referred solely to the mother of God. But then the African monkey vanished and conservationists feared it had gone extinct—a victim of the bushmeat trade. For years, research groups called for an […]
Tag: Gorilla
Mountain Gorillas Reveal Their Genetic Secrets
A team of genetic scientists, co-led by Dr Chris Tyler-Smith of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Dr Aylwyn Scally of the University of Cambridge, UK, has sequenced the whole genome of the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and compared it with the genomes of three other Gorilla subspecies – the western lowland gorilla (G. […]
In Photos: “Drunk” mountain gorilla punches wildlife photographer
Photographer Christophe Courteau was taking snaps of mountain gorillas in the forest of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park when the group’s 250 kg alpha male charged at him out of the blue. Amazingly, Courteau managed to get in one last shot of the incoming fist before the punch connected. Caters News Agency reports that the very […]
Meeting the mammal that survived the dinosaurs
So, here I am, running in a forest at night over 2,000 miles from home. This forest—dry, stout, and thorny enough to draw blood—lies just a few miles north of a rural town in the western edge of the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti. I’m following—or trying to keep pace with—a local hunter […]
Why responsible tourism is the key to saving the mountain gorilla
The sunlight poured through the canopy, casting dappled shade over Makara, a large silverback mountain gorilla, as he cast his eyes around the forest clearing, checking on the members of his harem. A female gorilla reclined on a bank of dense vegetation of the most brilliant green, clutching her three day old infant close to […]
Gorilla gorilla gorilla…
The triple barreled scientific name of the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) aptly mirrors the number of major threats which this species faces in its struggle for survival. The constant threat of being hunted for bushmeat for an ever growing population; the rapid destruction of habitat from mining, logging and agriculture; and the perilous […]