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FirmhandKY -> Good news for primate lovers! (8/5/2008 9:31:47 AM)
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More than 100,000 rare gorillas found in Congo
(CNN) -- An estimated 125,000 Western lowland gorillas are living in a swamp in equatorial Africa, researchers reported Tuesday, double the number of the endangered primates thought to survive worldwide.
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The last census on the species, carried out during the 1980s, estimated that there were only 100,000 of the gorillas left worldwide. Since then, the researchers estimated, the numbers had been cut in half.
WCS survey teams conducted the research in 2006 and 2007, traveling to the remote Lac Tele Community Reserve in northern Republic of Congo, a vast area of swamp forest.
Acting on a tip from hunters who indicated the presence of gorillas, Rainey said that the researchers trekked on foot through mud for three days to the outskirts of Lac Tele, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the nearest road.
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"This is the highest-known density of gorillas that's ever been found," Rainey said.
I don't know about you guys, but I'v always had a soft spot for the primates closely related to man. The David Brin "Uplift" series I think is accurate in what we owe other species nearly able to develop higher intelligence. I'm even in favor of giving them limited "human rights" in some ways.
This was good news to me. I hope that their discovery leads to more efforts to protect the species.
Firm
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