Hooray for Gorilla gorilla gorilla gorillas!
Always good to learn that a species - especially a fellow ape - is doing well:
Trove of Endangered Gorillas Found in Africa
A grueling survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp in the northern Congo Republic has revealed the presence of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas*, a rare example of abundance in a world of rapidly vanishing primate populations.
As recently as last year, this subspecies of the world’s largest primate was listed as critically endangered by international wildlife organizations because known populations - estimated at less than 100,000 in the 1980s - had been devastated by hunting and outbreaks of Ebola virus. The three other subspecies are either critically endangered or endangered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05apes.html?hp
* Western lowland gorilla = Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Genus species subspecies)- it's just too much fun not to say :-)
Trove of Endangered Gorillas Found in Africa
A grueling survey of vast tracts of forest and swamp in the northern Congo Republic has revealed the presence of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas*, a rare example of abundance in a world of rapidly vanishing primate populations.
As recently as last year, this subspecies of the world’s largest primate was listed as critically endangered by international wildlife organizations because known populations - estimated at less than 100,000 in the 1980s - had been devastated by hunting and outbreaks of Ebola virus. The three other subspecies are either critically endangered or endangered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/05/science/05apes.html?hp
* Western lowland gorilla = Gorilla gorilla gorilla (Genus species subspecies)- it's just too much fun not to say :-)