The eastern gorilla has officially been declared critically endangered, joining the list of other great ape species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)’s red list.
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It may be the poster animal for endangered species awareness, but it appears the giant panda has bounced back.
The wild giant panda population is fragmented into 33 isolated groups, with some having fewer than 10 animals, which limits the gene pool for reproduction.
The increase is as a result of government efforts – including measures to protect and recreate bamboo forests.
“Everyone should celebrate this achievement but pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly-planned infrastructure projects – and remember: there are still only 1,864 left in the wild”.
But, warnings have been issued that the increase could be wiped out by climate change, which is expected to destroy more than 35per cent of the natural bamboo habitat in the next 80 years.
However, the IUCN warned the good news for pandas could be short-lived.
Grauer’s Gorilla, one of the Eastern Gorilla subspecies, has experienced a fall in population from 16,900 individuals in 1994 to an estimated 3,800 previous year.
On other animals, the IUCN said the situation of the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) has improved, after protection helped it move from “endangered” to “near threatened” following a spate of commercial poaching for its valuable underfur, or shahtoosh, which is used to make shawls.
Four of the six great apes, including the Eastern Gorilla, the largest living primate and one of our closest cousins, are now Critically Endangered and just one step away from extinction due to illegal hunting, according to a new report.
With a total population estimated to be below 5,000 across both its subspecies, there are now around 3,800 eastern lowland gorillas (down 77pc). The chimpanzee and bonobo are the only two faring better, though each is listed as endangered.
Their numbers have declined by 70 percent over the last twenty years, and the species is now considered to be critically endangered.
Nearly one third – 23,928 – are threatened with extinction, it said. “Conservation action does work and we have increasing evidence of it”.
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“Once poorly understood, there has been an explosion of scientific studies across many disciplines, and this knowledge has increasingly been applied management and policy decisions”, the IUCN says.
