Good News for the Cross River Gorillas?
Results from surveys undertaken in 2000 and 2001 have indicated that
there may be up to 180 Cross River gorillas remaining on the Cameroon
side of the border. In 1999, it was estimated that up to 100 gorillas
were still surviving in the Takamanda Forest Reserve, located in the South
West Province of Cameroon, the only area in Cameroon then known to support
Cross River gorillas. However, as research extended into the adjacent
Mone Forest Reserve and the Mbulu Forest in 2000, the presence of gorillas
was discovered in these contiguous forest areas and subsequent studies
were undertaken to estimate their population density.
Although surveys to clarify gorilla distribution are still ongoing and
this figure may be subject to change, these initial results confirm that
the Cross River gorilla population is indeed larger than previously believed.
Although this is positive news, unfortunately it does not mean that the
gorillas are any less at risk of possible extinction. Already classified
as "critically endangered" by the IUCN Red
List, these gorillas still face an uncertain future as threats to
their habitat and from hunting continue to further fragment gorilla groups.
Over the past 4 years, conservation efforts undertaken by the local people
in collaboration with the Cross River Gorilla Research Project (Cameroon)
and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF) project PROFA have
markedly reduced gorilla hunting in these areas. However, other threats
to the gorillas such as encroachment into their preferred habitat and
the construction of a road between two of their known ranges will certainly
have an effect in further isolating already existing sub-populations.
Surveys are currently being undertaken to assess the ranging behaviour
of the gorillas, who at the present time are known to prefer highland
areas and to avoid extensive areas of lowland forest. This may be because
hunting is higher in lowland areas than in the highlands. If lowland forest
corridors cannot be secured and if gorillas are deterred from using lowland
corridors to reach gorilla groups in other highland sites, in breeding
and loss of genetic variation may imperil isolated groups. In order to
highlight the tenuous future that these unique apes face, a poster and
leaflet campaign focusing on the conservation of the Cross River gorilla
will be distributed to local communities over the next 2 months. It is
hoped that this small-scale education initiative will be followed up with
further conservation education activities.
Jacqueline Groves
Jacqueline Groves began working with primates in 1991 with Pandrillus in Nigeria. In 1995 she returned to co-ordinate the Pandrillus' Cameroon project, the Limbe Wildlife Centre focusing on the rehabilitation of orphaned apes. Since 1997 she has worked with WWF Cameroon completing a gorilla survey in the Takamanda Forest Reserve.
Original map: Daniel Slayback, SSAI/NASA Goddard
Space Centre, J. Groves