For decades, mountain gorillas teetered on the edge of extinction — fewer than 250 individuals remained by the 1980s. Anti-poaching patrols, community programmes, and carefully managed ecotourism changed everything. In 2018, they became the only great ape ever to improve its IUCN status, with over 1,000 individuals alive today.
On the Edge
For decades, mountain gorillas edged toward extinction. Habitat destruction, poaching, and civil conflict in the Virunga volcanoes pushed them to fewer than 250 individuals by the 1980s.
Then something rare happened: conservation worked. Anti-poaching patrols, community engagement, and strictly managed ecotourism turned the tide. By 2018, the IUCN upgraded the species from Critically Endangered to Endangered — the only great ape ever to improve its status.
>> "Rangers risk their lives daily to protect them — and the gorillas have become a flagship for what determined conservation can achieve."
Today, roughly 1,063 mountain gorillas live across Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rangers risk their lives daily to protect them. The gorillas have become a flagship for what determined conservation can achieve.