Mountain Gorilla

✨ Help fund the direct protection of gorilla families & allow for their trackers to remain in the forest 365 days a year! ✨

STATUS
Endangered ⚠️

POPULATION
About 1,060

HABITATS
Virunga mountains, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

THREATS
Affected by human - wildlife conflict and habitat loss & fragmentation.

There are about a thousand mountain gorillas remaining on Earth, and about half live in the forests of the Virunga mountains in central Africa. Mountain gorillas are a subspecies of eastern gorilla. As their name hints, they live in the mountains at elevations between 8,000 and 13,000 feet.

These gorillas live on the green, volcanic slopes of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo—areas that have seen much human violence from which the gorillas have not escaped unscathed. Habitat loss is a major threat: agriculture, illegal mining, and forest destruction for charcoal production have degraded their forests. They often get caught in snares laid out to trap other animals for bushmeat. Climate change also poses a threat: While gorillas are adaptive, moving to higher elevations to adapt to warmer temperatures, those areas are densely populated with little forest remaining. Catching illnesses from humans is also a threat. The majority of mountain gorillas are habituated to human presence because of the tourism industry, and while there are strict sanitation protocols in place and touching the gorillas is prohibited, disease could spread quickly.

Female gorillas give birth to one infant after a pregnancy of nearly nine months. Unlike their powerful parents, newborns are tiny—weighing four pounds—and able only to cling to their mothers' fur. These infants ride on their mothers' backs from the age of four months through the first two or three years of their lives.

Young gorillas, from three to six years old, remind human observers of children. Much of their day is spent in play, climbing trees, chasing one another, and swinging from branches.

#BeWild

🌎

Love mountain gorillas? Us too. But they're in real danger of being lost forever and currently have an ENDANGERED status.

Funds are urgently required to save some of the most beautiful creatures on earth.

Do something amazing today and purchase the MOUNTAIN GORILLA pin badge where the funds raised will help fund the direct protection of gorilla families & allow for their trackers to remain in the forest 365 a year within the on mountain gorilla region.

Thank you!