Endangered animals – Cross River gorilla

Cross River gorilla can be found only on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, in mountainous forests, and is one of one of the world's 25 most endangered primates according to the IUCN Primate Specialist Group, and the most endangered of all African great ape species.

There are only 250-300 Cross River gorillas still left in the wild. The main reasons behind their sharp decline in the last few decades have been habitat loss and intense hunting for bushmeat as they have the misfortune to live in a region with high human population density and heavy natural resource exploitation.

Conservation work to protect these gorillas is yet to achieve significant success even despite major effort from Cameroon government that has even created the Takamanda National Park on the border with Nigeria, as an attempt to protect these gorillas.

The good news recently came from the Wildlife Conservation Society. According to their latest satellite study Cross River gorillas have more suitable habitats to roam around than previously thought. The area now known to be occupied by gorillas is more than 50 percent larger than had previously been thought and with the proper steps could lead to recovery of gorilla population.

WCS conservationist Andrew Dunn said: "The good news for Cross River gorillas is that they still have plenty of habitats in which to expand, provided that steps are taken to minimize threats to the population."

Hopefully, this and similar researches will lead to more effective conservation of these majestic animals and ensure there is a future for this gorilla species.

Gorillas more important than oil in Congo

When it comes to animals vs oil exploration and drilling the winners are usually oil companies but luckily not always. The positive example comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa where country's environmental minister Jose Endundo has rejected the bid by the UK's Soco International to search for oil in the Virunga National Park.

Virunga national park is the largest habitat for mountain gorillas in the world, with more than 200 of the world's remaining 700 mountain gorillas living here. Not only that, this area also belongs to the areas with the richest biodiversity on our planet.

You don't have to be a scientist to realize that oil exploration and drilling would cause huge damage to animals living in this area, especially when you consider the history of this area covered with bloody civil wars.

In fact, there are still some armed groups of rebels operating in this area, attracted by the richness of mineral resources, and oil exploration would therefore likely add even more tensions and unrest into already extremely sensitive area.

This area is also rich with fish, in fact it is estimated that fish stocks in nearby Lake Edward are a vital food supply for around 500,000 families.

The last thing this area needs is oil exploration and oil drilling. Some politicians claim that oil drilling would boost Congo's economy by creating many new jobs. But at what cost? Destroying such a beautiful nature?

The decision about the oil exploration could sadly still change because Endundo already announced that the government is about to conduct its own environmental assessment into oil exploration in Virunga.

The animals such as mountain gorillas have already suffered enough from frequent military conflicts in the park. The last thing they need right now is oil drilling.

Why are mountain gorillas endangered?

Mountain gorillas are among the most famous of all endangered animals. These majestic animals live in the tropical mountain forests in central Africa, but they are lately finding it very hard to survive, and a couple of years back they were brought at the brink of extinction.

There are several reasons why mountain gorillas are endangered such as habitat loss and deforestation which moves gorillas to more and more isolated areas, and gives them tough time in finding the food. Other reasons include poaching because some cruel "collectors" are ready to pay handsomely for their heads, hands, and feet. And they have been also very unfortunate to live in the areas where civil wars are quite frequent, a fact that certainly doesn't help the conservation cause, as it means that sometimes they have been also killed because of their meat.

Mountain gorillas have lately become quite a touristic attraction in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda which has somewhat put more emphasis on their conservation efforts. Fortunately, it looks like the most recent conservation efforts have been quite successful, as according to the latest reports mountain gorillas that live in the Virunga Massif have experienced a significant increase in population.

If the latest reports are correct then the Virunga mountain gorilla population has experienced increase of 25% in the last seven years, and today accounts for 480 individuals living in 36 groups. This means that the current world population of mountain gorilla is now close to 800 individuals.

Young mountain gorilla.

The main factor responsible for this positive trend was a collaborative transboundary effort by organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to protect the gorillas and their habitat.

However, even despite these positive numbers, mountain gorillas are still under threat of extinction, and it will take lot more conservation efforts to remove gorillas from the endangered animals list.

Virunga Massif is still one of the most popular areas for poachers in Africa, and the latest proof to this was the discovery of 200 poachers' snares in this area. Though poachers usually do not set their sight on gorillas, snares set by them are still a great threat.

Hopefully, positive news will continue to overshadow the negative ones, and mountain gorilla population will continue its road to recovery. These incredible animals need to survive, and conservation efforts must continue.

Gorilla park to protect gorillas in Cameroon

Africa is worst hit by deforestation, and Cameroon is one of the countries with the highest deforestation rate in whole Africa. Cameroon is losing its forests at very fast rate with 220,000 hectares of forests destroyed each year mostly due to logging and agriculture. Forest is of course home of many animal species, including the famous gorillas, and as more and more forest disappears gorillas, together with other animals, are losing their habitats which could lead them to extinction.

Therefore this last step made by Cameroon government was more than welcome as they decided to create new national park that would not only protect a population of 600 gorillas, but also other threatened species such as chimpanzees, forest elephants, buffaloes, and bongo. Deng Deng National Park covers 224 square miles (580 square kilometers) which should get animals enough room to freely move without fear of suddenly losing their habitats.

Gorillas and many other endangered animals have better chance for survival in new Cameroon's national park.

Without such actions, not only in Cameroon but in other parts of Africa, and world in general, many animals could face the brink of extinction as they are constantly forced to not only fight with the fact that they are losing their habitats but also with climate change, pollution, not enough food or water, etc. These all problems are of course caused by who else than us, humans.

Mountain gorillas protected with new deal?

It looks like mountain gorillas in Congo's National park Virunga will get a decent chance for survival after the deal was struck between rebels and government to allow park rangers return back to forest habitats to monitor gorillas families. Until now in this war zone there hasn't been rangers for one year since the time rebels seized control of these jungle area in late 2007.

But fortunately for mountain gorillas all sides in the conflict accepted the importance of mountain gorillas preservation in Virunga, and park rangers will finally have the chance to yet again monitor gorilla population, and to see effect of civil war had on gorilla population. According to latest study there are around 700 gorillas left in the world, of which 190 has its habitats in Congo. It will be interesting to see how many of these 190 Congo gorillas survived until now. Some officials like Benjamin Nsana (park guide in the rebel zone) say that no gorillas had died over the last year — not from poaching, disease, crossfire or anything else because in this area rebels patrolled the park's outskirts thoroughly.

Return of park rangers in Virunga should help mountain gorilla population

Whether this is true or not, one thing is sure though, namely that return of park rangers is a good news for mountain gorillas in Congo. But with so frequent civil wars in and around this area you really can never tell what is going to happen next. For now it looks good, but the question still remains for how long?

Mountain gorillas in Virunga in jeopardy - again

Mountain gorillas are extremely rare and are listed as one of the most critically endangered species in the world. Majority of remaining number (about 700) lives in Virunga national park, located in Congo. Unfortunately this area is one of the bloodiest area on our planet, with frequent civil wars between rebels and government. Human casualties are not the only casualties, animals are also being brutally killed, including gracious mountain gorillas. In the 2007 10 gorillas were brutally killed in Virunga, some even with the shot in the back of the head, kind of execution style.

Recent bloody escalation isn't helping either as Virunga has once again become war zone with rebell soldiers commanding the hilltops. Different armed groups train in park, and off course eat in the park, with different animals on their menu (in 2007 there hundreds of hippopotamuses were killed with machine guns for their meat, so cruelly that even lake become red).

Mountain gorillas in Virunga national park have this misfortune to have their habitat in one of the most blood-soaked area in the world

Richness of this land is probably the main cause of frequent civil wars as these area is loaded with gold, diamonds, wood and other precious resources so the national park extremely rich with biodiversity is the last thing that confronted sides think of. Park officials have asked both rebels and government troops to allow their return but rebels say that gorillas are safe because they are protecting them. Hopefully this protection doesn't include bullet in the back of the head like it was the case last year.

Endangered animals - Mountain gorillas

Mountain gorilla is beautiful animal that lives in the tropical mountain forests in central Africa, in area shared between three countries: Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. These gorillas live on high altitudes, above 2000 m and unfortunately there are only around 70 mountain gorillas left in these tropical mountain forests.

Though there has been some significant progress in conservation of these animals, mountain gorillas are still threatened by poaching, habitat loss, diseases and civil wars.

Mountain gorillas have often been killed for their heads, hands, and feet, which are then sold to collectors and there's also the problem of abduction of young gorillas as they are being sold to zoos or to people that want them as pets. Abduction of young mountain gorilla usually means the death of at least one adult mountain gorilla as members of group will fight to the death to protect their young. Poaching for their meat also causes the problem, especially in regions affected with civil war when there's not much food for local people.

Their habitat loss is lately also very big problem as humans need more and more land, which often results in deforestation, moving gorillas to isolated areas. These isolated areas mean less food for gorillas and without the necessary food sometimes they even raid crops for food which often causes retaliation from the local population.

Since gorillas have similar genetic structure as humans, they are vulnerable to many diseases as humans are, but unlike humans they still hadn't developed immunities to resist human diseases since there used to be no humans and no diseases. However mountain gorillas are now the biggest touristic attraction in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda, and because of this gorillas are exposed to great risk of capturing some human disease that could severely reduce already endangered gorilla population.

Civil wars, very often in these areas, also present big problem since they make conservation efforts too risky, and almost impossible.

On 20th February 2008 in Kampala, these three countries launched their 10-year Transboundary Strategic Plan for the Central Albertine Rift Protected Area Network that should improve community livelihoods and contribute to the stability of the region. This project's basic idea is to not only contribute to species conservation, but also to sustainable development and poverty alleviation because these problems are too connected to be solved separately.

And saving the endangered mountain gorillas of Africa will be a key component of the 4-year project. Let us hope for the best.

Mountain gorillas - Family