They’re powerful, intelligent and majestic, yet increasingly imperiled. Today, on World Gorilla Day, we recap recent Mongabay reporting that highlights both the threats facing gorillas, our great ape cousins, and some signs of hope.
Emerging threats
The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) continues to be one of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates, according to the latest edition of the “Primates in Peril” report. Roughly 250 mature individuals are thought to remain in the wild in Nigeria and Cameroon, Mongabay’s Malavika Vyawahare reported in May.
A recent Mongabay investigation found that hunting is an emerging threat for Cross River gorillas in Nigeria. Mongabay contributor Orji Sunday spoke to hunters, traffickers and customers of the illegal trade and found that hunters who kill gorillas were traditionally ostracized in the local communities. But today, the gorilla trade is a booming business. Prices for ape parts have skyrocketed as the gorillas grow scarcer. “If you visit Ose main markets, you can get up to 50 to 100 ape heads if you so desire. Their supply of ape body parts is quite large,” said Ekene Ezenwoke, an ape body part trader who operates from one of the major markets in southeastern Nigeria.
Meanwhile, as M23 armed rebels have taken control of much of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since earlier this year, there’s been increasing forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. This spells trouble for the critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas or Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) living in the park, Mongabay’s Elodie Toto and Latoya Abulu reported in July.
Signs of hope
A study published in May, using camera traps, captured the first evidence of a group of chimpanzees and a gorilla, as well as a gorilla nest, in two degraded forest reserves in Cameroon, Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman reported. Wildlife conservationist Jean Christian Mey Boudoug said this confirmation of both great apes in two highly fragmented areas with significant human presence highlights the need to protect these reserves.
In October 2024, conservationists released four eastern lowland gorillas into Virunga National Park in the eastern DRC, Toto reported. The gorillas were orphaned as infants when their families were killed by poachers, and were raised at the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) in DRC from 2010-2016. Their release back into the wild was preceded by more than five years of rewilding work by NGOs, local communities and authorities.
The M23 presence in Virunga since January 2025 raises concerns for the introduced gorillas, but local conservationists remain hopeful.
“We are sure the gorillas will survive,” said Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, GRACE’s DRC director. “This armed group — they are just communities, they’re not from far away. That’s why we put communities at the center of all our activities, to break the cycle of poaching and wildlife trafficking.”
Banner image: A western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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