There are not many dangers to the gorillas or big impacts than humans. The gorilla has become increasingly rare throughout its range, having suffered from human destruction of its forest habitat and from big-game hunting and over collection by zoos and research institutions. A newer threat is hunting associated with the bush meat trade, especially to feed logging crews. With respect to eastern gorillas, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed both the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla as critically endangered subspecies.
The adult population of the mountain gorilla is about 680. Reasons for the near extinction of this subspecies include continued loss of habitat as a result of human activities: farming, grazing, logging, and, recently, habitat destruction by refugees. At the same time, ecotourism involving visits by travelers to see gorillas in their natural habitat has contributed to the conservation of the mountain gorilla.
As hunting and trade
In some cultures, in central Africa, the killing and eating of gorillas has increased in recent years and the animals are frequently slaughtered for the bushmeat trade.
Dangers to the gorillas as disease
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe, infectious, often fatal disease that has devastated many African great ape populations. Scientists in 2003 estimated that a third of the wild gorilla population had been killed by the Ebola virus, and the species remain at risk. Additionally, because gorillas share so many traits with humans, they are susceptible to other human diseases. Populations of gorillas that are in frequent contact with humans are particularly vulnerable to deadly respiratory infections. In mountain gorilla range, where gorillas frequently raid farms, they are susceptible to scabies, TB and a host of other diseases from human transmission.
Weak Law Enforcement
Both the killing of gorillas and trade in gorilla products are illegal across the animals’ range, but poachers, traders and consumers are rarely apprehended. The good news recently is that the number of the mountain gorillas has shoot to 880 individuals. This is due to your continuous support through tourism as many visitors come for the gorilla safaris, the local community have started to realize the economic impact and the social impact of gorilla and conservation in general. However, there is still challenge and more need to be done. Visitor’s continuous support to the local community is raising and building new trend in community with much involvement in tourism and conservation.
New generation with quite a different reasoning towards wildlife in general than in the past, where wildlife was looked like source of food is being raised. More still, funds from tourism are playing a great role on creating awareness and helping in conservation. Your visit to these endangered species, contribute a lot to their existence.
