Grow ape

Mountain gorilla numbers have risen but threat of disease shrinking habitat and climate change looms

- BY STEPH SPYRO

High in the misty forests of East Africa, mountain gorillas are rewriting a story once headed for a tragic ending.

Their rare conservation success is a fragile victory that could easily be undone by disease, shrinking habitat and climate change.

Just 1,063 mountain gorillas now roam the national parks of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

They are the only great apes whose numbers are rising, and conservationists hope a census due in weeks will show further gains for the endangered giants.

In the 1980s, it was believed that fewer than 400 mountain gorillas existed worldwide.

Expanding agriculture and logging destroyed much of their forest home, and naturalists feared the species might vanish forever.

Primatologist Cath Lawson, senior programme adviser for Africa at the World Wide Fund for Nature, warns that the conservation success remains precarious.

After a trek to see the 17-strong Rushegura mountain gorilla family in Bwindi National Park, she said: "There are loads of reasons to celebrate when it comes to mountain gorillas.

"They recently went from being listed as critically endangered to now endangered. But it is a really fragile success. Mountain gorillas are still a conservation-dependent sub-species.