We're so used to bad news on the environment that it's surprising -- even thrilling -- when good news surfaces. Good environmental news emanated like crazy from the Republic of the Congo this week when scientists released a survey showing there are more -- tens of thousands more -- endangered western lowland gorillas in that country and in existence than previously thought.
The count was conducted by the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the government of the Republic of the Congo (also called Congo-Brazzaville, to distinguish the country from its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo). It showed that the forests and swamps in the country's north have been hiding more than 125,000 of mankind's closest primate relatives. This count doubles in number the estimated worldwide population of the species.
How was this previously hidden population of gorillas able to thrive while its fellow subspecies declined to the brink of extinction? Western lowland gorillas are one of four subspecies of gorilla in Africa. The other three are mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas and cross-river gorillas, whose surviving numbers are much lower.
According to the British Telegraph newspaper, there are said to be fewer than 700 mountain gorillas,
300 cross-river gorillas and an unknown number of eastern lowland gorillas surviving, although the figure is thought to be in the thousands. These gorillas are among mankind's closest relatives.
The Congo gorillas escaped the fate of their brethren because they live in remote, roadless terrain that is difficult to access. Mankind has not yet been able to penetrate and destroy their habitat. Most wildlife conservation groups say poaching (killing the gorillas for bushmeat) and the spread of the Ebola virus are responsible for killing off most of the other three species. Ebola is contagious and lethal among humans and gorillas, and so when humans invaded or developed gorilla habitat, they spread the disease among the animals.
All this makes conserving the remote nature of the parts of Congo-Brazzaville where the lowland guerillas live all the more important. Now that the word is out, logging companies and other mineral extraction enterprises will be waving huge sums of money in the faces of Congo-Brazzaville officials, trying to buy the rights to build roads in the region. Their goal will be to harvest the mother lode of rare trees and minerals in the forests and swamps where the gorillas now live free from mankind's deadly panoply of influences.
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