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Group Says Gorilla Is Near Extinction

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By ERICA BULMAN, The Associated Press

Published: September 14, 2007

GENEVA - The most common type of gorilla is 'critically endangered,' one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released this week by the World Conservation Union.

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 being lost to logging and palm oil plantations are compounding the problem, said the Swiss-based group, which is known by the initials 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.'

In all, 16,306 wildlife species are threatened with extinction, which is 188 more than last year, IUCN said. Twenty-five percent of mammals are in jeopardy, as are 13 percent of birds, 33 percent of amphibians and 70 percent of plants that have been studied.

The western gorilla's main subspecies - the western lowland gorilla - has been savaged by the Ebola virus, which has wiped out about one-third of the gorillas found in protected areas during the past 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. 'The rate of decline is dizzying. If it continues, we'll lose them in 10-12 years.'

Female gorillas start reproducing at age of 9 or 10 and have one baby about every five years. Walsh said even in ideal conditions, it would take the gorillas decades to bounce back.

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