The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=aKdDPOyK5_tw

Congo Gorilla Population Has 'Baby Boom' Amid Unrest

By Alex Morales

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Democratic Republic of Congo's mountain
gorilla population grew by almost 13 percent in what one primate
expert called a "baby boom" even as a rebel conflict forced rangers to
flee the park.

Mountain gorillas inhabiting Virunga National Park that are considered
tame increased to 81 this month from 72 in 2007, the park said in a
report. The rise occurred as rangers fled the world's second-oldest
national park after Yellowstone amid fighting between the Congolese
army and rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda, who was captured last week in
neighboring Rwanda.

"When there's very intense fighting as there has been in the past 15
months, there is the possibility of gorillas being killed," Park
Director Emmanuel de Merode said today in a telephone interview from
Rumangabo, eastern Congo. Instead, "there's been an unusually high
number of births and we're extremely pleased about it. It's a postwar
baby boom."

Poaching remains a threat to the primates, with rangers discovering an
"unusually high number" of snares, de Merode said. Last year, 10
gorillas were killed in four incidents after clashes between
government forces and rebels took place in Virunga.

The preserve, Africa's most biologically diverse and a habitat for the
primates made famous by Dian Fossey in "Gorillas in the Mist," also
shelters African elephants sought by poachers for ivory.

About 150 rangers at Virunga and four other parks in eastern Congo
have been killed over the past 10 years amid the civil war, according
to Congolese authorities.

Conservationists' Red List

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, which compiles the
Red List of threatened species, last year held off changing the status
of mountain gorillas to endangered from critically endangered because
of unrest in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.

The latest survey was carried out from Nov. 25 to Jan. 22. Gorillas
are termed either habituated, meaning they are docile in the presence
of humans, or unhabituated, meaning they aren't, de Merode said.
Counting the second category isn't precise, and rangers estimate there
are about 120 in Virunga, de Merode said.

About 720 mountain gorillas, whose latin name is Gorilla beringei,
remain in the world, according to park authorities. That includes
habituated and unhabituated animals. The rising numbers of tame
gorillas may be representative of the entire population.

"The population of habituated gorillas is a very good indication of
the gorilla population as a whole," de Merode said. "Habituated
gorillas are the most vulnerable. They're on the forest boundary so
they're much more exposed."

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at
amorales2 AT bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 27, 2009 09:25 EST