Mountain gorillas can inhabit the foothills of Virunga volcanoes that stretch across the borders of three East African counties – Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mountain gorillas are endangered species of apes and they were on high decrease rate around the 18th century, and early researchers indicated that by 20th century they would go into extinction. This was however stopped by strong conservation and protection measures enforced by different organizations and government bodies like Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and park authorities like Rwanda Development Board in Rwanda, Uganda Wildlife Authority in Uganda and Congo’s Virunga conservation organization.
Since then, the gorilla population started increasing exponentially in number since there were measures to control poaching, human encroachment, civil wars among other human activities that would hinder the increase of gorilla population. A big appreciation goes to the late Dian Fossey, a researcher and primatologist who saved a huge number of gorillas in the early 1980s during her time in volcanoes national park when gorilla poaching was on a record high rise.
The 2018 mountain gorilla census indicates that gorilla population in the Virunga trans-boundary area has grown to 1063 individuals with Bwindi National Park in Uganda having 459 individuals thus ranked to be the park with almost half of the total mountain gorilla population. All this is due to the efforts of conservationists, trackers, local communities, researchers, non-profit organizations, government bodies that corporate among the three countries.
According to research made on wildlife, mountain gorillas are the most protected wildlife in the whole world. During this census, researchers walked in all national parks within the Virunga conservation area, which include Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, Virunga national park in Democratic Republic of Congo and Mgahinga national in Uganda; as well as Bwindi Impenetrable National Park with the intention of counting the number of gorillas thriving in these lush jungles. This did not seem to be a simple task but they managed to accomplish it. We appreciate the supporting governments in the three countries mentioned above.
Selected researchers followed the demarcated trails around the mountain to collect samples about the gorillas while marking where they were passing and the process was completed in two phases. The first process was done in March to May 2018 and the second one started in October until December the same year with a view of not leaving any gorilla uncounted.
On the other hand, they made research about the presence of other unique species in the Virunga area like chimpanzees and elephants, but none were traced. Researchers also said that although there is an increase in mountain gorillas in Virunga Mountains, in some parts like Bwindi National Park in Uganda there is still a risk of diseases since gorillas are prone to human diseases. Also, human encroachment is still high for instance the Batwa pygmies and over local communities in Kigezi areas which compete for the habitat with the gorillas.
This census was done in collaboration with different bodies such as Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Rwanda Development Board, WWF Uganda Country Office and Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust, Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation, International Gorilla Conservation Program among others which were the main partners. This was under the frame 2 of great Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration.
This rise in gorilla population however ranked the mountain gorillas as non-critically endangered species. They are now considered as endangered species. For the case of Bwindi National Park and other conservation areas that face human threats, there have been joint efforts to work with local communities through provision of services like safe, running water and boreholes, construction of hospitals, schools among others and sensitization about the great importance of wildlife.
In addition, above, there are other more conservation measures employed to protect the gorillas in the Virunga Mountains and joint efforts of the three governments (Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo) have done a great job in conserving the endangered mountain gorillas and hence an increase in their population over the last few years.
