Massive study finds more gorillas and chimpanzees than previously thought, but 80% are outside the safe havens of protected areas

A study estimates that more than 360,000 gorillas and nearly 130,000 chimpanzees still inhabit the forests of Africa approximately – one third and one tenth more than previously thought. However, approximately 80 percent of these great apes live outside protected areas, and gorillas are declining at an annual rate of 2.7 percent. Efforts to stop poaching, illegal logging, and habitat degradation and destruction are key to saving great apes. Conservationists from several organizations and government agencies gathered and analysed data on western lowland gorilla and central chimpanzee populations in the largest ever survey of these great apes that live exclusively in Western equatorial Africa. The field work for the study collectively took 167 person-years, with the researchers walking a distance longer than the north-south axis of Africa. The study was led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Among the authors is Hjalmar Kühl from the iDiv research centre and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.