Mountain gorillas are currently the only nonhuman great ape whose population is not declining. Thanks to successful conservation interventions, the species’ population has increased from 620 in 1989 to more than 1,000 today, enabling the International Union for Conservation of Nature to change the species’ conservation status from critically endangered to endangered. However, with mountain […]
Tag: mountain gorilla
Habitat Destruction, Poachers and Human-Transmitted Disease Could Erase Progress Made With Endangered Mountain Gorilla
The Mountain Gorilla is one of the 10 most endangered animals on Earth, and it may not be here much longer. For decades, mountain gorilla populations have been dwindling as uncontrolled hunting, disease, habitat loss and the ravages of human conflict have taken their toll. The mountain gorilla are now considered endangered. In the 1980s, […]
IUCN to Help Endangered Animals ‘Thrive, Not Just Survive’
According to the Guardian, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has launched a conservation tool to help threatened and endangered animals and plants recover from population loss. The IUCN red list is an updated list of endangered species and how close they are to extinction. Mountain gorilla and Bayard’s adder’s-mouth orchid are […]
For Africa’s great apes, a post-pandemic future looks beyond tourism
On Jan. 11 this year, something happened that primatologists had both feared and expected: two western lowland gorillas at San Diego Zoo Safari Park tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Right from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts had assumed great apes would be susceptible to the virus. IUCN great ape specialists sent out a document […]
Killer of Rafiki, Uganda’s rare silverback mountain gorilla, jailed
The killer of one of Uganda’s best known mountain gorillas, Rafiki, has been jailed for 11 years. Felix Byamukama pleaded guilty to illegally entering a protected area and killing a gorilla. Byamukama had said the gorilla attacked him and he killed Rafiki in self defence, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Mountain gorillas are […]
Twelve rangers killed in latest Virunga Park incident
Twelve rangers and five other people were killed in Virunga National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday. It was the latest deadly incident in the park, where more than 150 rangers have been killed since 2006. Virunga, which includes large areas of intact rainforest that are home to […]
Keeping gorillas safe amid COVID-19 concerns
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, gorilla conservation teams are working to ensure that Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), and the people who protect them, remain safe. Gorillas are vulnerable to human diseases, and can experience these diseases in more severe forms. Mountain gorillas have died from the common cold. So with the first […]
Mountain gorilla census reveals further increase in numbers
The outlook for eastern Africa’s mountain gorillas is growing brighter, as a recent census released on Dec. 16 shows that the subspecies’ numbers have risen since 2011. Scientists believe there are now at least 1,063 mountain gorillas living in the wild. Tara Stoinski, the CEO and chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, […]