Populations of the largest primate on the planet , the eastern lowland gorilla, have experienced an alarming decline in the last twenty years. So much so, that the survival of this subspecies is today called into question.
This is the main conclusion of a report published by the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the Society for the Conservation of Wildlife and Fauna and Flora International, which indicates that since 1998 77% of the species have disappeared. individuals . At the time, it was estimated that there were about 17,000 copies. Today, they are less than 3,800.
These gorillas, which in the case of males are around six feet high and can weigh more than 170 kilos, live in some of the most conflictive regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo . “The loss of the gorillas is one more consequence of the human tragedy that has been unleashed in the east of that country,” says Jefferson Hall, an ecologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, who has participated in the development of the study. And, although they are protected, these mammals face numerous threats .
On the one hand, the gorilla groups, which can be made up of more than 30 of them, are easy to track, so the armed factions that roam their territory kill them for food . In addition, the uncontrolled exploitation of mineral resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example coltan, which is used in many electronic devices, has destroyed much of their habitat. In fact, also many miners, who work far from their villages, hunt them for their meat.
At present, the efforts of the different conservation groups that, despite the danger, still work in the area, are focused on the establishment of the Punia Gorilla Reserve and the Itombwe Reserve , which have the support of the communities. premises, and the reinforcement of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park. However, according to Hall, the recovery of the eastern lowland gorillas requires carrying out a type of measures and investments that, at the moment, do not seem viable, and that would include from the disarmament of the militias in the region to the control of mining prospects , which would reduce the deforestation involved in this process.
Image: Jefferson Hall / STRI
