Gorilla Journal 13, December 1996

Should We Consider the Translocation of Gorilla Populations?

Some researchers expressed their concern that it may become necessary soon to think about translocating small gorilla populations to other areas because they are in danger of extinction. Such an undertaking would be very risky and costly. But these are not the only problems that would arise. First of all, many questions should be answered, like:

Are suitable areas available at all?
How big would a suitable forest area have to be?
Which other requirements should the new habitat have?
Which situation (threats, critical population size) could trigger the initiation of the translocation?
How many individuals from how many groups shoould be caught and translocated?
How would the gorillas be caught?
Who decides when and where which animals will be translocated?
Who coordinates the whole project.

Our aim is to contribute to a discussion which should start soon. Therefore, several experts were asked for their opinion about this subject.

Kelly Stewart and Sandy Harcourt

Gorillas in general - overview

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