2009, año del gorila

El objetivo es ampliar las medidas de conservación de este primate, en grave peligro de extinción

La delicada situación de los gorilas y su hábitat ha llevado a la Organización de Naciones Unidas (ONU) a declarar 2009 Año Internacional de este primate. La decisión debería implicar mayores esfuerzos de conservación y lucha contra las amenazas que han llevado a estos animales al borde de la extinción.

- Imagen: Jenny Rollo -

Los gorilas, con los que el ser humano comparte casi el cien por cien de ADN, se encuentran gravemente amenazados. Las estimaciones más optimistas apuntan una población mundial de 200.000 ejemplares, mientras que las más pesimistas se quedan en 6.000. En concreto, el gorila occidental (Gorilla gorilla) se considera en peligro crítico de extinción, según la Lista Roja de la Unión Internacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (UICN). Congo, Ruanda y Uganda apenas cuenta ya con 700 ejemplares de gorilas de montaña (Gorilla beringei beringei), mientras que en Camerún y Nigeria la especie "Cross River", llamada así por residir cerca del río Cross, ni siquiera supera los 300 ejemplares.

Quedan entre 200.000 y 6.000 gorilas en todo el mundo, según distintas estimaciones

Varias amenazas explican la delicada situación en la que sobreviven los gorilas. Los conflictos bélicos, que se suceden en su hábitat desde hace años, constituyen su principal problema, según la organización Wild Life Direct. En la actualidad, el Parque Nacional de Virunga, situado en la frontera entre Ruanda y Uganda y hogar de la tercera parte de los últimos gorilas de montaña del mundo, es una zona de combate más entre el ejército congoleño y los rebeldes anti-gubernamentales. Los responsables del Parque han tenido que huir a campos de refugiados, desde donde cuentan las últimas novedades a través de su página web y reclaman la ayuda internacional.

Además de la guerra, la caza ilegal también lleva años amenazando no sólo a los gorilas, por cuya carne se pagan grandes sumas de dinero, sino también a muchos guardas que han perecido al realizar su trabajo. Así quedaba reflejado en la película "Gorilas en la niebla". La actriz Sigourney Weaver encarnaba la vida de Dian Fossey, una zoóloga estadounidense que trabajó entre los años 60 y 80 por la conservación de estos animales, hasta su asesinato por los cazadores furtivos.

Por otra parte, el virus del Ébola también se ha convertido en un enemigo de estos animales. A finales de 2006, un equipo de biólogos españoles alertaba de que la variante "Zaire" del virus había acabado en cinco años con 5.500 gorilas que vivían en unos 2.700 kilómetros cuadrados de selva tropical en la República del Congo.

Asimismo, los responsables de la ONU recuerdan que los principales problemas medioambientales de la actualidad, como el cambio climático o la destrucción del hábitat, y en concreto la deforestación, también inciden negativamente en la supervivencia de los gorilas.

Medidas para evitar su extinción

- Imagen: Peter Szustka -

Naciones Unidas pretende que la celebración del Año Internacional del Gorila sirva para mejorar la situación de estos primates. Para ello, sus responsables apuestan por acciones que mejoren el hábitat en el que viven y contribuyan a la paz en la zona. Por ejemplo, se fomentarán programas de ecoturismo que permitan el desarrollo sostenible de los habitantes de dichas regiones y eviten los conflictos armados y la caza ilegal.

Los expertos de la ONU solicitan también una mayor financiación para proyectos de recuperación medioambiental y conservación animal, que han demostrado buenos resultados cuando han sido llevados a cabo de forma eficiente. Un ejemplo de ello es el Programa Internacional para la Conservación del Gorila (IGCP), en el que participan diversas organizaciones, como el Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF), la Fundación Africana para la Naturaleza y la organización Fauna y Flora Internacional. Su trabajo, centrado en la conservación del gorila de montaña, ha logrado importantes logros. El año pasado, WWF informaba de que la población de gorilas de montaña de Uganda había crecido en la última década un diez por ciento, situándose en los 340 ejemplares.

El Gobierno de Camerún ha creado recientemente un nuevo parque nacional para proteger al gorila "Cross River"

Asimismo, se reclama una mayor colaboración por parte de las instituciones. Los responsables de la ONU quieren reforzar el paso dado en junio de este año con la firma del Acuerdo sobre la Conservación del Gorila y sus Hábitats. Se trataba de la primera vez que un documento legal obligaba a los gobiernos de la zona a trabajar conjuntamente por la conservación de este primate. Las medidas que se aprobaron incluían mayores esfuerzos de colaboración y el endurecimiento legal de la lucha contra el furtivismo.

En este sentido, las iniciativas son posibles a pesar de las dificultades. Por ejemplo, el Gobierno de Camerún ha creado recientemente un nuevo parque nacional para proteger al gorila "Cross River". El Parque Nacional de Takamanda, situado en la frontera con Nigeria, albergará a unos 115 gorilas de esta rara especie. Para ello, el Gobierno camerunés ha contado con la colaboración de la Sociedad de Conservación de la Naturaleza (WCS).

Convención de Especies Migratorias

El nombramiento de 2009 como año del gorila ha sido una de las diversas acciones tomadas en la Convención para las Especies Migratorias (CMS) de Naciones Unidas, celebrada recientemente en Roma. Entre las decisiones adoptadas, sus participantes reconocieron a 21 nuevas especies en peligro de extinción, como el guepardo o el buitre egipcio, y aprobaron varias resoluciones, como la encaminada a reducir la contaminación sonora de los océanos, que perjudica especialmente a ballenas y delfines.

Los miembros de la CMS, provenientes de 109 países de todo el mundo, colaboran desde 1983 para mejorar la conservación de las especies y sus hábitats, especialmente las migratorias en peligro.

Gorilla "Paradise" Found; May Double World Numbers

Dan Morrison for National Geographic News

August 5, 2008

Deep in the hinterlands of the Republic of the Congo lies a secret ape paradise that is home to 125,000 western lowland gorillas, researchers announced today. The findings, if confirmed, would more than double the world's estimated population of gorillas. Western lowland gorillas are a subspecies classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Their numbers have been devastated in recent years by illegal hunting for bush meat and the spread of the Ebola virus. Just last year scientists projected the animals' population could fall as low as 50,000 by 2011. Now those predictions may have to be dramatically reworked to incorporate findings released today by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). A first ever ape census in northern Congo found 73,000 of the gorillas in that country's Ntokou-Pikounda region and 52,000 more in the Ndoki-Likouala area.  The Ndoki population includes an obscure group of nearly 6,000 gorillas living in close quarters in isolated swamps near Lac Télé. "We knew there were apes there, we just had no idea how many," said WCS's Emma Stokes, one of the lead researchers in the two-year project. The gorillas have thrived thanks to their remoteness from human settlements, food-rich habitats, and two decades of conservation efforts in one of the world's poorest countries, Stokes said.  Shy, But Plentiful Lowland gorillas are more common than their mountain cousins. The animals are found in tropical forests and swamps in Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. Wary of humans, gorillas are notoriously hard to tally in the wild. To assess their populations, WCS researchers instead used data on the numbers and ages of so-called sleep nests, temporary bedding made of leaves and branches. Each group of lowland gorillas has a range of about 7.7 square miles (20 square kilometers), and the animals build the nests to sleep in each night before moving on in the morning. The census work involved crossing hundreds of miles to count nests, then loading data into a mathematical model that estimated the number of gorillas living within a defined area. In the 17,400-square-mile (28,000-square-kilometer) Ndoki-Likouala region, for example, the nest census found an estimated population density of 1.65 gorillas per square kilometer (equal to about 0.3 square mile). This means that about 46,200 western lowland gorillas likely live in the area, which runs west of the Sangha River to the border of the Central African Republic. An additional 6,000 gorillas reside in the region's 646-square-mile (1,040-square-kilometer) Batanga swamps. These wetlands, which are inaccessible to humans for more than half the year, house an estimated five to six apes per square kilometer. "That's the highest density I've seen," Stokes said, adding that the data suggest Ndoki-Likouala is the subspecies' "largest remaining stronghold." The discovery "shows that conservation in the Republic of Congo is working," said WCS president Steven Sanderson.  Almost half the surveyed area lies within officially protected zones or inside timber concessions where logging companies have banned transport of protected animals and weapons on their roads. Researchers hope the latest census will encourage the government of Congo to establish a new national park in the Ntokou-Pikounda region.  The census was presented today at the International Primatological Society conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, and some of the data will appear in an upcoming issue of the conservation journal Oryx.  Perils of Counting Apes Several experts greeted the survey findings with a mix of excitement and caution.  "If these new gorilla census figures are confirmed by further surveys, it would be the most exciting ape conservation news in years," said Craig Stanford of the Jane Goodall Research Center at the University of Southern California. "Nest census data are notorious for varying from one method to the next, however, and I think we should be cautious before assuming the world's known gorilla population has just doubled." Nesting data were among the factors used in a 2007 IUCN population assessment that placed the western lowland gorilla on the organization's Red List of Threatened Species.  IUCN estimated the gorillas had declined by more than 60 percent over the past 25 years, and its scientists projected the apes' population could fall to 50,000 as the deadly Ebola virus penetrated deeper into their habitat.  That report came with a caveat about the reliability of nest counts: "Technical problems with the conversion of ape nest density to estimates of gorilla density preclude a rigorous estimate of range-wide gorilla abundance." Peter Walsh of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, led the 2007 IUCN assessment. He repeated those concerns when he learned of WCS's findings in northern Congo.  "It is not that I think that the numbers are necessarily too high," Walsh said. "It is just that I do not trust the assumptions made by the estimation models that are being used." Nature's Secrets John Oates, professor emeritus of anthropology at Hunter College in New York, noted that "what does seem clear is that there are still plenty of western gorillas in northern Congo." He remains cautious, however, about whether the new research should signal a change in status for the great apes. In addition to habitat loss and hunting, in recent years Ebola has ravaged gorilla habitats bordering the Ntokou-Pikounda survey area, killing 60 percent of the apes in nearby Odzala National Park. While WCS's Stokes said her survey found "no evidence of Ebola in Ntokou-Pikounda, our general philosophy is Ebola can hit anywhere, anytime." And with a 90 percent mortality rate among infected gorillas, Stokes thinks the animals deserve all the protection they can get.  In general, the WCS findings demonstrate that our intensely observed planet still has its biological secrets, added Richard Bergl, curator of research at the North Carolina Zoo. "It is extraordinary that in this day and age," he said, "there could be a population of a hundred thousand or more gorillas that were essentially unknown to science."

125.000 gorilas encontrados

Os dejo un enlace donde podreis ver un vídeo sobre la noticia en la web de National Geographic,

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080805-gorillas-video-vin.html

World's Rarest Gorillas Gain New Refuge

Dan Morrison for National Geographic News

April 22, 2008

The rarest gorillas in the world are being protected in a new sanctuary nestled in the mountains of Cameroon, the government announced recently. A community of 20 Cross River gorillas now live in the Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, the first exclusively dedicated to this subspecies of western lowland gorilla. The apes are listed as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union: As few as 250 to 300 survive. The animals are scattered over 11 mountain and forest sites in Cameroon and Nigeria, driven to the verge of extinction by hunting and loss of habitat. Cameroonian Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni announced the Kagwene sanctuary in a decree on April 3. (See an illustration of a Cross River gorilla, recently named one of the 25 most endangered primates.) Every Ape Counts Researcher Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves has studied Cross River gorillas since 1997. She established the Wildlife Conservation Society research team working in the area. The Kagwene sanctuary is "a major conservation achievement for this subspecies," Sunderland-Groves said. Cross River gorillas are the northernmost and westernmost subspecies of gorillas. Their diet is more diverse than that of western lowland gorillas, and Cross River gorillas are found in a wider range of habitats, including lowland forests, mountain forests, and grasslands. Richard Bergl is curator of conservation and research at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro. "Given the small size of the Cross River gorilla population, every single individual is important for the long-term survival of this subspecies," he said. "Wildlife populations of this size can be very sensitive to the loss of even a few animals," he said. Another Link in the Chain More than 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the west of Kagwene lies the only other sanctuary where Cross River apes can be found: an eight-year-old preserve on Afi Mountain in Nigeria. Conservationists want to create a chain of sanctuaries—a wildlife corridor—that would protect the gorillas living between Afi and Kagwene. This would allow them to safely travel—and mate—between localities, ensuring continued genetic diversity. "This subspecies [is] patchily distributed across a broad landscape, and protection across their range requires a network of protected areas and corridors," Sunderland-Groves said. A 2006 action plan by researchers calls for a chain of sanctuaries that would cost U.S. $4.6 million to establish. "Kagwene on its own would perhaps not have a huge impact because it protects just one part of the population and its habitat," said John Oates, professor emeritus at Hunter College in New York, who helped write the plan. "But getting the area protected is a step in getting the larger landscape better managed, from a conservation point of view.'' (Related: "Two New Wildlife Parks Created in Congo" [September 25, 2006].) Gorillas Are People Too Though ringed by human settlements, the gorillas at Kagwene have a leg up other great apes. While gorillas elsewhere in Cameroon and Nigeria are vulnerable to poachers, "Kagwene is unique, in that the gorillas were not traditionally hunted by local communities," Sunderland-Groves said. Many local people believe that gorillas are actually humans and therefore cannot be killed, she said. (Related: "Gorillas Found Tossing 'Weapons,' Study Says" [January 30, 2008].) "Unfortunately, the strong belief in totemism [or kinship] in relation to gorillas is not widespread and only a handful of villages across the gorilla range believe that the gorilla is their particular totem," said Aaron Nicholas, a researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society. Still,"there seems to be a common recognition that the gorilla is a unique animal and a general acceptance that the hunting of gorillas should not be allowed," Nicholas said. The sanctuary, which has served as a Wildlife Conservation Society research station for several years, will continue to be managed by the nonprofit. The refuge will also be staffed by local villagers trained in conservation. "Protecting any population of these gorillas is critical to their future," said Rebecca Stumpf, a researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "Protecting more would be preferable."

Human links may be seen in gorillas' tools

Wild gorillas have been seen using "weapons" for the first time, giving a new insight into how early man learned to use sticks and stones for fighting and hunting millions of years ago.

Researchers observed gorillas in the Cross River area of Cameroon throwing sticks, clumps of earth and stones at human "invaders".

It is the first time that the largest of the great apes has been seen to use tools in an aggressive way.

Experts believe that our ancestors may have learned to use sticks and stones in a similar way to frighten away predators.

The scientists noticed the unusual behaviour during a three-year study. They believe the animals might have learned to throw objects from humans who were seen throwing stones at the gorillas.

Jacqueline Sunderland Groves, from the University of Sussex in Brighton, a member of the Wildlife Conservation Society team, said: "The area is largely isolated from other gorilla groups, but there are herdsmen on the mountain.

"In one encounter a group of gorillas threw clumps of grass and soil at the researchers while acting aggressively. Another gorilla threw a branch. A third encounter saw the gorillas throwing soil at a local man who was throwing stones at the apes."

A gorilla was seen to use tools once before in the Congo, using sticks to test the depth of water and to cross swampy areas.

The findings suggest that the use of tools may predate the evolutionary split between apes and humans six million years ago.

Fuente: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/