The Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), is the world’s most vulnerable ape. These gentle the big players are only in small portions on gazetted green volcanic ski slopes in Southwestern Uganda, Northwestern Rwanda and Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The gazetted volcanic ski slopes are largely covered with afromontane forested acres. These forested acres are a home to so many species that are unique to these forested acres among them being the Mountain Gorilla. There are also several species of birds, primates, large mammals, reptiles, pests, plants and shrubs that are unique to these forested acres.
The Mountain Gorillas are distributed in four game parks in the three countries, that is, Mgahinga National Park and Bwindi Impassable National Park in Uganda, Virunga Volcano Range in Democratic Republic of Congo and Park des Volcanoes in Rwanda. The last population census estimated the current Mountain Gorilla population at 790 individual.
In spite of several efficiency efforts by authorities and several organizations, the Mountain Gorilla still faces several dangers to its existence. The biggest threat is home loss. Forested acres are cleared on a daily basis to meet guy’s growing needs, to build structures and cultivation. While authorities have put in a lot of efforts to protect these habitats, humans have made this harder and in the past have been paid to the extent of setting these forested acres ablaze to show Prestige Park Grove their resentment.
The Mountain Gorillas are also vulnerable by poachers who are constantly hunting them down for many reasons including killing them for respect while others are traded abroad to be displayed in zoos while others are used as specimen in scientific research in laboratories. The insurgencies in the region have likewise seen a number of gorillas wiped out or displaced from their natural habitats.
As one of the moves to save these vulnerable apes, the creatures authorities in the three countries opened up the parks for tour activities especially gorilla tracking. Some of the revenue generated is then used to benefit the local communities around the parks. The locals had been seeing the gorillas and the formation of the game parks a threat. They could no longer access these forested acres which are a source of their income and on several occasions set the forested acres on fire or hunted them down and wiped out them as an easy way of resenting the whole idea of gorillas. Now that the locals see direct advantages of the gorillas, their attitude and actions towards the gorillas have relatively improved. And once you buy a gorilla permit, you are not only adding to the improvement of the locals but are also indirectly helping conserve these great apes.
Humans can still jeopardize these bashful the big players during gorilla tracking in some ways. The creatures authorities have at the moment come up with a list of rules to follow during gorilla tracking as another measure to preserve these gorillas.
For instance gorillas are susceptible to human illness, so no gorilla tracker is allowed to track when ill. Humans are also required to keep at least seven meters from the gorillas.