How the Gorilla Census Is To Be Conducted

The mountain gorillas reside in prehistoric Bwindi impenetrable National park, Virunga volcanoes National Park and Mgahinga national park. There existence came to be recognized after the film Gorillas in the Mist that featured greatly. This stimulated organizations like International Gorilla Conservation Programme, Friends of gorillas to show more interest in conserving these apes.

To find out the actual number of the gorillas in Uganda, the International Gorilla Conservation Programme announced that it has 75 enumerators that have been trained to carry out the exercise that involves counting nests where the gorillas sleep, collecting their faecal matter for genetic analysis and placing geographical positioning system points to prevent double counting.

Some part of the samples will be flown to Germany for DNA tests for genetic identity of various animals to present accurate results. “The 2006 census showed 340 gorillas from counting nests, but the genetic analysis showed 302 and it is considered more accurate. This time around we are applying both methods,” announced Dr Martha Robbins of Max-Planck Institute in Germany, who is leading the census team. “Results of the census will be tallied to the 480 gorillas counted from Virunga Conservation Area last year,” she commented.
Uganda is looking forward to better results.
GORILLA SAFARI NEWS