The population of mountain gorillas in the Virunga Volcanoes has more than doubled in the past three decades

A recent census of the critically endangered mountain gorillas, Gorilla beringei beringei, conducted in the Virunga Volcanoes found a minimum of 604 individuals. In combination with the 400 individuals living in the only other population in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, these new results push the total number of wild mountain gorillas in the world to over 1000. Conducting the census was a large collaborative effort among the park services of the three countries where mountain gorillas live, several non-governmental conservation organizations, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.