Highly Endangered Mountain Gorilla Population Grows by 17 Percent

Today, there are 56 more mountain gorillas roaming the Virunga Volcanoes than in 1989, when the last census was carried out. That's a 17 percent increase over the 1989 estimated population of 324 individuals in this region. This growth is particularly notable, given that it occurred in the midst of intense political instability and the Rwandan genocide, which took the lives of more than 750,000 people.

Historically, the Virunga mountain gorillas have been threatened by poaching, loss of habitat from population pressures, civil unrest and spread of disease. But, conservation efforts initiated by the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), a coalition of the African Wildlife Foundation, Fauna and Flora International and World Wide Fund for Nature, have helped to ensure that the highly endangered mountain gorilla population will endure. Through a variety of methods, including transboundary collaboration, ranger-based monitoring, community development, anti-poaching activities and habitat conservation, IGCP and its conservation partners are helping the mountain gorillas to make a comeback.

"We have been working in the Virunga region for more than 27 years, funding critical research and working to protect both the mountain gorillas and their habitat," says Dr. Patrick Bergin, President and CEO of the African Wildlife Foundation. "Nothing pleases us more than to see that our work, and the work of other conservation organizations is helping to ensure that the mountain gorillas not only survive, but thrive. Still, we must not be complacent, as the slow rate of reproduction among mountain gorillas makes the challenge of keeping these precious creatures alive ever so great."

The Virunga gorilla census was conducted between September and October 2003 in collaboration with three conservation authorities (Office Rwandais du Tourisme et Parc Nationaux, the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature and the Uganda Wildlife Authority) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda. The work was supported by the International Gorilla Conservation Program, as well as the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, Berggorilla und Regenwald Directhilfe, Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

The census was conducted by six teams traversing the entire Virunga gorilla habitat range, searching for signs of gorilla groups. Each gorilla makes a fresh nest to sleep in each night, and the location of nests, in conjunction with actual mountain gorilla sightings, are used to establish the number of individuals in each group. A total of 100 team members participated in the census, drawn from the staff of the protected area authorities and their partners.

Combined with the 2002 Bwindi census results which established the Bwindi population at approximately 320 - this census indicates that the world population of mountain gorillas is now at least 700. Since the completion of the Virunga Census in October, IGCP has documented at least two additional mountain gorilla births. Additional information on the mountain gorillas can also be found on IGCP's website at www.mountaingorillas.org.