Gorillas Threatened, Group Says

GENEVA – The most common type of gorilla is now “critically endangered,” one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation Union.

The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it might become impossible for them to recover.

Commercial hunting, civil unrest and habitat loss due to logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations are compounding the problem, said the Swiss-based group known by its acronym IUCN.

“Great apes are our closest living relatives and very special creatures,” Russ Mittermeier, head of IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group, told The Associated Press. “We could fit all the remaining great apes in the world into two or three large football stadiums. There just aren’t very many left.”

The Western Gorilla’s main subspecies – the Western Lowland Gorilla – has been decimated by the Ebola virus, which has wiped out about a third of the gorillas found in protected areas over the last 15 years.

“In the last 10 years, Ebola is the single largest killer of apes. Poaching is a close second,” said Peter Walsh, a member if IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group, said. “Ebola is knocking down populations to a level where they won’t bounce back. The rate of decline is dizzying. If it continues, we’ll lose them in 10-12 years.”

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Other species

The World Conservation Union also said:

The Yangtze River dolphin is now “possibly extinct.” There have been no documented sightings of the cetacean since 2002.

The Redheaded Vulture soared from “near threatened” to “critically endangered.” The birds’ rapid decline over the last eight years is largely due to diclofenac, a painkiller given to ill or injured farm cattle so they can still work. But the substance poisons vultures.

Only 182 breeding adults of the Gharial crocodile remain in India and Nepal, down almost 60 percent from a decade ago.

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Originally published by Associated Press .

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