Latest Bwindi gorilla Stories

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In what can only be described as an impassioned effort to save their own kind from the hand of poachers, two juvenile mountain gorillas have been observed searching out and dismantling manmade traps and snares in their Rwandan forest home, according to a group studying the majestic creatures. Conservationists working for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International were stunned when they saw Dukore and Rwema, two brave young...

Brett Smith for RedOrbit.com Heavily armed Congolese rebels taking refuge in their country’s Virunga National Park are placing endangered mountain gorillas under additional threat, according to conservation officials. The park is home to a large portion of the world’s remaining 800 mountain gorillas and park officials said that the situation means conservation efforts must be either modified or placed on hold. "We are deeply concerned with the safety of the mountain gorillas who...

Census team led by Wildlife Conservation Society, ICCN braves insecurity of imperiled Kahuzi-Biega National ParkA census team led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Insitut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo has announced some encouraging news from a region plagued by warfare and insecurity: a small population of Grauer's gorillas has not only survived, but also increased since the last census.The...

New study indicates that ecotourism may be contributing to the decline of mountain gorillas in African preservesIn a study published online this week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, an international team of researchers report that a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans infected and contributed to the deaths of mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. This finding raises questions about the safety of ecotourism for endangered species.The study, which appears in the...

Finding confirms that serious diseases can pass to gorillas from peopleFor the first time, a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans has been linked to the deaths of wild mountain gorillas, reports a team of researchers in the United States and Africa.The finding confirms that serious diseases can pass from people to these endangered animals.The researchers are from the non-profit Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project; the Wildlife Health Center at the University of California, Davis;...

Rwandan media reported on Monday that a mountain gorilla in northern Rwanda gave birth to twins, which is a rare occurrence for an endangered species with a population less than 800 individuals. "The twins, both of them males, were born Thursday of a mother gorilla called Kabatwa. They are doing well," Radio Rwanda reported, quoting information from the Rwandan Development Bureau.According to the pro-government daily New Times, only five previous instances of twins have been...

Regional authorities said Tuesday that the population of mountain gorillas in their main central African habitat has increased by a quarter in seven years. The majority of the world's mountain gorillas are found in the Virunga massif, which includes three contiguous national parks in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda. According to a census carried out earlier this year and funded by local and foreign wildlife organizations, the population of the iconic but endangered...

The world's rarest"”and most camera shy"”great ape has finally been captured on professional video on a forested mountain in Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and Germany's NDR Naturfilm.With the assistance of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Cameroon Program, a film crew from the Hamburg-based NDR Naturfilm managed to video the elusive Cross River gorilla earlier this year in a stand of montane trees after weeks of effort in the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary. The...

More than two years after being evacuated following the 2007 killings of their mothers, mountain gorilla babies Ndakasi and Ndeze this week returned home to the Democratic Republic of Congo, moving into a new custom-built forest sanctuary.The Dec. 1 move was coordinated by the UC Davis-based Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, which has been providing veterinary care for the orphans since they were rescued."The move was a great success thanks to the tremendous effort of the Mountain...

ATLANTA, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- M2SYS Technology, an award-winning biometric technology research and development firm, has finalized an agreement to provide Bwindi Community Hospital with their leading-edge fingerprint identification system as part of a donation effort to support global causes. Bwindi Community Hospital provides healthcare to some of the poorest people in the world, affected with devastating diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and diarrhea, which are...