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WORLD / Africa
Gorillas now 'critically endangered'
(AP)
Updated: 2007-09-13 10:10
GENEVA -- The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered,"
one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of
Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation Union.
A female Western Lowland Gorilla named Kiki eats a frozen-juice treat
prepared by its keeper at Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, in this June 26,
2007 file photo. [AP]
The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where
it might become impossible for them to recover.
Commercial hunting, civil unrest and habitat loss due to logging and
forest clearance for palm oil plantations are compounding the problem,
said the Swiss-based group known by its acronym IUCN.
"Great apes are our closest living relatives and very special creatures,"
said Russ Mittermeier, head of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group. "We could
fit all the remaining great apes in the world into two or three large
football stadiums. There just aren't very many left."
In all, 16,306 species are threatened with extinction, 188 more than last
year, IUCN said. One in four mammals are in jeopardy, as are one in eight
birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the plants that have
been studied.
"Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless
urgent action is taken," the IUCN warned.
The Western Gorilla's main subspecies?- the Western Lowland Gorilla?- has
been decimated by the Ebola virus, which has wiped out about a third of
the gorillas found in protected areas over the last 15 years.
"In the last 10 years, Ebola is the single largest killer of apes.
Poaching is a close second," said Peter Walsh, a member if IUCN's Primate
Specialist Group, told the AP. "Ebola is knocking down populations to a
level where they won't bounce back. The rate of decline is dizzying. If
it continues, we'll lose them in 10-12 years."
Female gorillas only start reproducing at the age of 9 or 10 and only
have one baby about every five years. Walsh said even in ideal
conditions, it would take the gorillas decades to bounce back.
The World Conservation Union also said the Yangtze River dolphin is now
"possibly extinct." There have been no documented sightings of the
long-snouted cetacean since 2002. An intensive search of its habitat in
November and December proved fruitless but more searches are needed as
one was possibly spotted in late August.
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