East Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas

Around 700 mountain gorillas survive in the wild, split almost evenly between two locations: the Virunga range of volcanic mountains on the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda, and in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

East Africa’s endangered mountain gorillas are making a slow but steady comeback due to a decade of conservation efforts to counter the impact of war and poaching.

In the 100 years since its discovery, this subspecies of eastern gorilla has endured uncontrolled hunting, war, disease, destruction of their forest habitat, and capture for the illegal pet trade. These factors led to a dramatic decline in numbers. Indeed, there were fears that the mountain gorilla would become extinct in the same century it was discovered.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are now 340 mountain gorillas in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, which is home to nearly half the world’s mountain gorillas. That is a 12 percent growth over the past decade, WWF said, indicating a healthy, well-protected population.

“This is great news for the survival of the mountain gorilla,” Marc Languy of the group’s east Africa programme said. But with only about 720 in total left in the wild, he said, more needed to be done to safeguard their survival.

The primates are split between the Virunga volcanoes that straddle Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). They are a top attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, where tourists pay hundreds of dollars a day to track them through the dense forests.

But in eastern DRC they are at risk from warring militias that make Congo’s reserves too dangerous to visit. Rebels there were accused this year of killing and eating two silverback gorillas — adult males so called for their grey fur — but later apparently agreed to stop hunting them.

Eastern DRC bore the brunt of a 1998-2003 war and humanitarian disaster that killed some 4 million people. Many in the impoverished region rely on bush meat to survive.

Eugene Rutagarama of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme, hailed the Bwindi census, which came after similar increases were recorded elsewhere in the Virungas in 2003.

“This shows how joint conservation efforts between Uganda Wildlife Authority, park authorities in Rwanda and the DRC and conservation organisations can pay off, despite recurrent security threats in the region,” he said.

Of the 30 gorilla groups in Bwindi, five – a total of 76 individuals – are habituated, or used to contact with humans. The Ugandan authorities plan to habituate two more groups as part of efforts to boost tourism, the WWF said.

Source: WWF