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Great News - Gorilla Population Doubles Overnight.

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Author Topic: Great News - Gorilla Population Doubles Overnight.  (Read 217 times)
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caskur™
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« on: August 06, 2008, 04:42:47 pm »
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http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/08/05/2324706.htm?site=science&topic=latest

Gorilla 'mother lode' found in Congo

Maggie Fox
Reuters


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Researchers have found 125,000 western lowland gorillas living in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost doubling the known number of the endangered species.

A report released today at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland says a new census tallied more than 125,000 critically endangered gorillas in a 47,000-square-kilometre area.

Estimates from the 1980s had suggested fewer than 100,000 of the great apes had survived and many experts believed these numbers had been cut nearly in half by disease and hunting.

The census figures, if right, increases the gorilla population estimate to between 175,000 and 225,000.

The Wildlife Conservation Society report shows "that northern Republic of Congo contains the mother lode of gorillas", says society president Steven Sanderson.

"It also shows that conservation in the Republic of Congo is working. This discovery should be a rallying cry for the world that we can protect other vulnerable and endangered species, whether they be gorillas in Africa, tigers in India, or lemurs in Madagascar."

Nest counts
The researchers conducted the census by counting nests made by gorillas in rainforests and isolated swamps. Gorillas make fresh nests every night.

Western lowland gorillas are one of four recognised gorilla sub-species, which also include mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, and Cross River gorillas.

All are classified as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), except eastern lowland gorillas, which are endangered.

However, the news in the primate world is not all good, with an IUCN report to the Edinburgh conference showing nearly half the world's monkeys and apes are facing a worsening threat of extinction because of deforestation and hunting for "bushmeat".

It found that 48% of the 634 known species and sub-species of primates, humankind's closest relatives such as chimpanzees, orangutans, gibbons and lemurs, are at risk of extinction.

Habitat destruction, led by burning and clearing of tropical forests for farmland, and the hunting of monkeys and apes for their meat are the main threats.

'Eaten into extinction'
Some species are "literally being eaten into extinction," the group says.

"Gorilla meat, chimpanzee meat and meat of other apes fetches a higher price than beef, chicken or fish" in some African countries, Rusell Mittermeier, IUCN president, says.

Primates are suffering most in Asia, with 71% of all species at risk, against 37% in Africa.

Among species most at risk, or "critically endangered", are the Bouvier's red colobus, an African monkey which has not been seen in 25 years, and the greater bamboo lemur of Madagascar totalling only about 140 in the wild.

"If you took all the individuals of the top 25 most-endangered species and assigned each of them a seat ... they probably wouldn't fill a football stadium," Mittermeier says.

Mittermeier says the outlook is not all gloom.

In Brazil, the black lion tamarin and the golden lion tamarin were downlisted to endangered from critically endangered after conservation efforts.

"There's no question that we can win the battle," he says pointing to wider efforts to slow deforestation as part of an assault on climate change that will help primates.




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caskur
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« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2008, 07:30:48 pm »
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Of course, the sad part about this discovery is, now that it has been discovered, humans will be all over that like flies over ****.

I saw the news item about it and the place of the discovery is twice the size of Connecticut and is inaccessible. They’ll access it because they cannot help themselves and so they’ll drag in their diseases.

Even though this is good news, its location should have been kept quiet.
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