Have you ever questioned yourself how mountain gorillas are endangered? Or how many they are in number in this whole world? Or what is the cause of their being endangered, Was there a moment when they weren’t threatened to extinction? Those that have lived to see the happy hours of these World’s most fascinating primates living in harmony in their territories can tell how life-changing an encounter with gorilla feels.
But could this be true? Maybe this may be your first time to hear about these Gorillas. And that you find no difference between these primates, then I will refer you to my previous posts before embarking on this great journey of determining whether Gorillas are really endangered or not!!
I have seen a number of people eager to Trek Gorillas in the Wild most especially in the Virunga’s Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda which is the World leading Mountain Gorillas Tracking area because of the easy accessibility of Gorilla here, some have gone for their gorilla safaris in Uganda to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The Mountain Gorillas in this park are considered to be different from other Mountain Gorillas by the primatologist and hence require naming as a different sub-species of Eastern Gorillas. Whilst others go to Mgahinga National Park these last two are located in Southern Uganda. For the feel of it, some clients prefer tracking all these Gorillas in these countries. This is what we may call appreciating Nature.
But the fact is people come with no or little knowledge about these Gorillas or which type of Gorillas they are going to track. The gorillas found in Rwanda, Uganda, and D.R.Congo are Mountain Gorillas and they have a great variation from other subspecies of Gorillas. For more on this please check out Gorillas Species in the World
In short there are two Gorillas species that roam the planet earth, if am to say (they may be roaming the world, found in The Zoo but their original homeland is Africa) and that is the Western Gorillas and the Easter Gorillas each species subdivided into two with Eastern Gorillas making the Mountain Gorillas that are entirely found in Africa and in the Wild with none in the zoo. The other subspecies of Eastern Gorillas is the Eastern lowland Gorillas mainly found in Congo, It is some times referred to as the Grauer’s Gorillas; they are the most critically endangered Gorillas in the World according to the 2012-1014 Most Crucially primates in The World. Where as the Western Gorilla Species is divided into the Cross River Gorilla and the Western-lowland Gorillas.
So what is the greatest threat of Gorillas in the Wild? Gorillas face a number of threats, poaching is one of these threats, were as people fight to protect these primates for generations and doing all that they can to allow people see and appreciate these primates while in their natural habitats others strive to show that they are able-bodied by hunting gorillas and eating them. You may be alarmed at this! At this but I was also on when I had of it too. But for what? Why would they do such a cruel act as this? You may be asking yourself, Cruel or rude we may call it but to these this was culture. All this was or still is found in Cameroon where it is chiefs who are coming to power are made to eat the Brains of a hunted Gorillas whereas the Old chief will eat its heart.
Gorillas have unaccounted a threat with diseases since they are closely related to humans they have been able to contract the same diseases as in humans that is why it is not advisable to extend near a gorillas more than 5 meters from it this is partly for your safety from the Dominate Silverback who will want to protect his members form the intruder of spreading disease from either the gorilla to you or from you to the Gorilla.
The increase in Human population has greatly exerted great pressure to the habitats of these Apes, which as lead them to look for food in people’s gardens after the destruction of their reliable source of food and in turn, people have picked up arms to fight them. This can be clearly seen in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where people have cleared the Forest where these Mountain Gorillas find their safety to give way for agricultural activities and settlements.
All the above and many more threats like taking them to the zoos where they face drastic diet change that may lead to their death (for example a certain zoo in Asia had wanted to buy some Mountain gorillas from Uganda for their zoo) has triggered
The need to protect these Gorillas for generations while in the wild because this is the best place for them even though records show that the life span of them being in the wild is lower than when they are in captivity, this does not qualify them to live as prisoners in the zoo. Because here they do not behave as gorillas should.
So what would be the best way to protect these gorillas in the wild? To me the conservation organization having garzetted their habitat it should sensitize the once rivals and predators of these Apes to become great friends and respect each other at all cost for the generation to come.
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