15 / 88
15
Eastern gorilla
(Gorilla beringei)
Matchie, 1903
Eastern Lowland Gorilla
(Gorilla beringei graueri)
(Matschie, 1914; Groves, 1970)
Red List:
Endangered
Distribution:
Endemic to eastern DRC.
CITES:
Appendix I since 1975
CMS:
Annex 1 since 2005
Population:
In the mid-1990s, the population of Eastern Low-
land Gorillas was estimated to be about 17,000 (plus or mi-
nus 8,000) with 86 per cent living in Kahuzi-Biega National
Park (KBNP) and the adjacent Kasese Forest (Hall
et al.
, 1998).
Since then, a decade of civil war, refugee crises and Bushmeat
hunting – especially to provision unregulated coltan and cas-
siterite mines (Redmond, 2001) – is thought to have caused a
significant decline. Insecurity in the region has prevented ac-
curate surveys, but the surviving population is thought likely to
be below 5,000. Despite the insecurity, surveys by Congolese
conservationists and WCS on the Itombwe massif revealed two
hitherto undocumented sub-populations of gorillas but also a
dramatic decrease in populations compared to 1996 surveys
(Plumptre
et al.
, 2009). Recent surveys of the Walikale Commu-
nity Gorilla Reserve indicate at least 750 gorillas in 80 groups
in the forests between KBNP and Maiko National Park/Tayna
Gorilla Reserve (see box p.79). This is an example of the DRC’s
National Strategy for Community Conservation, published by
ICCN, the DRC conservation authority, in 2008.
Mountain Gorilla
(Gorilla beringei beringei)
(Matschie, 1903)
Red List:
Critically Endangered
Distribution:
Two distinct populations, one in the Virunga
Volcanoes Conservation Area shared by DRC, Rwanda and
Uganda, and one mostly in Bwindi Impenetrable National
Park, Uganda but ranging into the contiguous Sarambwe Go-
rilla Special Reserve in the DRC.
CITES:
Appendix I since 1975
CMS:
Annex 1 since 2005
Population:
The Virunga population was estimated to be 400–
500 in the 1950s, fell to 250 by 1981, but successful conservation
measures led to its recovery. Despite the turbulent history of the
region over the past 20 years, in late 2003 the first census since
1989 revealed that the population in the Virunga mountains had
grown by 17 percent to 380. The population in Virunga National
Park, DRC, was reported to have increased by 12.5 percent from
72 to 81 gorillas between August 2007 and January 2009 (ICCN,
2009). The population in 2009 was thought to be about 420;
a full census is being organized in 2010. The Bwindi popula-
tion was not accurately surveyed until the early 1990s when it
was found to number between 290 and 310 (Butynski, 2001). In
2002 a census suggested a 7 per cent increase to 320 (McNeilage
et al.
, 2007) but new methods of genetic analysis of samples
collected during the 2006 census indicate a population of 300
(Robbins and Williamson, 2008).
Note: The Bwindi population was proposed as a distinct sub-species
(Sarmiento
et al.
, 1996) but this has been contested (Stanford, 2001) and is
not supported by genetic studies (Garner and Ryder, 1996).