New Park Protects 15,000 Gorillas

January 31, 2013

The New York Times

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© Thomas Breuer/Wildlife Conservation Society-Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

The Republic of Congo has just announced creation of a new national park that protects some 15,000 western lowland gorillas. Ntokou-Pikounda National Park also provides safe harbor for an estimated 800 elephants and 950 chimpanzees, as well as a remote swamp WCS researchers call the "Green Abyss."

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Several years ago, WCS researchers encountered 125,000 western lowland gorillas living in the northern Republic of Congo. Far larger than what we'd anticipated, these newly discovered populations provided hope for the future of the species. However, western lowland gorillas remain critically endangered: their numbers continue to decline because of poaching, habitat destruction, and disease.

Now, the Republic of Congo has created a national park to protect these majestic mammals. At 1,765 square miles, Ntokou-Pikounda National Park offers wide expanses of pristine habitats housing large populations of gorillas, elephants, and chimpanzees.
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