The Western Lowland Gorilla is the most common and abundant of all gorilla species. Yet, despite its seemingly copious numbers, has been classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN since 2007. The primate has seen over an 80 percent reduction in its numbers in the past 3 generations, progressing in a steep decline with 60 percent being lost in just the past 20 years.

The Western Lowland Gorilla is the most common and abundant of all gorilla species. Yet, despite its seemingly copious numbers, has been classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN since 2007. The primate has seen over an 80 percent reduction in its numbers in the past 3 generations, progressing in a steep decline with 60 percent being lost in just the past 20 years.

The Ebola outbreak of the early 1990s that spread throughout Central Africa up until the mid-2000s proved not only devastating to the people of these regions but also to its wildlife. The infectious disease has ravaged the Western Lowland Gorilla’s population since the epidemic began and although having subsided in humans, has yet to be contained in the forests of the region that comprise most of its habitat. Studies show that Ebolavirus took the lives of tens of thousands gorillas and at its peak had a mortality rate of over 95 percent. Three-quarters of The Western Lowland Gorilla population in six different areas have perished as a result of EVD.