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Saturday, April 21, 2007

East Africa's endangered gorillas make a steady comeback: WWF


Highly-endangered mountain gorillas in the Eastern Africa region have shown a steady resurgence in the past decade due to conservation efforts, a wildlife group said Friday.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said currently there are 340 gorillas in Uganda's Bwindi Impenentrable National Park, home to nearly half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas.

Although the figure represents a 12 percent growth in the past decade the WWF said "it is indicative of a healthy and well protected population."

Marc Languy of WWFs Eastern Africa regional programme said: "This is indeed great news for the survival of the mountain gorilla.

"However, with only about 720 individual mountain gorillas surviving in the wild, more efforts are still needed to ensure these beautiful animals do not become extinct."

Habitat encroachment and hunting in the eastern and northern Bwindi Impenetrable National park as well as civil wars in the region have been threatening the survival of the gorillas, the group said.

The primates are also found in the mountain ranges spanning Uganda, Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and are a source of high revenue from tourism.

However, early this year, rebels in the eastern DRC killed two solitary silverback gorillas, sparking fears among conservationists that the incidents could be a disaster for the species.

Source: Desimartini.com
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