The Grauers Gorilla population is twice as big as thought! Out of the woods? Not so fast

The Grauers gorilla, also known as the Eastern lowland gorilla (confusingly often found in the mountains, just not exclusively as the mountain gorilla is) is a close relative of the mountain gorilla.

Grauer Gorilla: less endangered than thought but still close to extinction

Now this is the good news. Unfortunately, that is where the good news ends. The population of this species is roughly 6800, rather than 3800. While this is a huge improvement, it still makes the entire population the size of a large village.

Furthermore, it has not changed the status of the Grauers gorilla which is still listed as critically endangered.

Unfortunately, as the gorillas home is being destroyed, without urgent action the population will fall to 3800 within a short period of time. The majority of this extra population lies in community forests. This is obviously good and bad. If rapidly acted on, the community could make large amounts of money through low impact ecotourism. However, as this area is not formally protected there is always the threat that the community coul decide to clear the area instead.

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