The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) holds 60 percent of the Congo rainforest, the second-largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. Because of this, the country serves as…
OKUNI, Nigeria — The bulldozers returned to the forests of Cross River state in southeastern Nigeria in January. Their metal blades resumed tearing down rainforest, rubber and cocoa plantations, homes…
The global trade of products that come at the expense of tropical forest is driving many primate species closer to extinction, a new study suggests. The research, published June 17…
Since 2014, the number of female park guards serving in Virunga National Park, located in war-ridden eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been gradually increasing. Today, 29 women serve…
OHOFIA, Nigeria — The fading sunlight, half-coned and yellow, turns the evening murky. The crowing of roosters mingles with the rattling of motorbikes as farmers make their way home from…
A sodium craving may be the reason endangered mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) from Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda leave the park to raid nearby eucalyptus plantations, according to a…
KANYANG, Nigeria — Former bushmeat hunter Jacob Osang says poverty and lack of options drove him to the trade. “There were no jobs, no opportunity anywhere,” Osang says. In 1985,…
DJOUM, Cameroon — “This right there used to be hell.” It’s early February 2019, deep in the tropical rainforest in southeastern Cameroon, the day after a night of heavy downpour.…
Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo will reopen its gates to tourists on Feb. 15 after officials closed them more than eight months ago. A spate…
BUTATONG, Nigeria — Until mid-2017, smallholder farmer Anthony Okwo was suspicious of the conservationists who visited his village of Butatong in southeastern Nigeria’s Cross River state. The village, where most…
A recent survey of wildlife rangers at a national park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that most aren’t happy with their jobs. Faced with low pay, little…
The illicit great ape trade involves a fusion of brutality and financial sophistication. Unlike most forms of wildlife trafficking, where animals are killed on the spot, the trafficking of great…
Several years ago, my colleague Richard York and I were sitting outside on a Eugene, Oregon patio discussing Elizabeth Kolbert’s then-new book, The Sixth Extinction, and we came to an…
You probably use it every day and don’t think once about gorillas. In today’s world, it’s almost impossible to get by without a mobile phone, but they’re wreaking havoc for…
The recent plunge in numbers of Grauer's gorillas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has lopped off one-fifth of the subspecies’ genetic diversity, leaving it potentially vulnerable to…
December 1978 A year into an 18-month research project on the critically endangered mountain gorilla in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, Amy Vedder and Bill Weber, newlywed graduate students from the…
BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK, Uganda — On a misty morning, a small group of critically endangered mountain gorillas led by a silverback known as Makara walks majestically into our view.…
In September, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) revealed that the country would soon receive a donation of gorillas from the DRC. Okapis (Okapia johnstoni), an endangered species…
The Republic of Congo has officially created its fifth national park, lending protection to great apes, forest elephants and other threatened wildlife. The new Ogooué-Leketi National Park spans 3,500 square…
Conservation organizations rely on building personal connections between great apes and the people who love them, but are trying to balance their missions with “cutesy” appeal.
