![]() The national parks where the mountain gorillas are found have communities living around them and the biggest number are illiterate and do not see the value of conserving the mountain gorillas but with the continued conservation efforts of the park authorities, the communities have been enlightened and the cases are subsidizing. You can only visit the mountain gorillas in the wild in the above mentioned four national parks. Unfortunately for the mountain gorillas, their life span in captivity is very minimal so they would definitely die once taken out of the wild. Some gorillas are poached to be sold to the wealthy people who would want to keep the gorillas as pets especially the lowland gorillas. ![]() This is a desperate measure for some people to make some extra cash. Besides eating the bush meat, those who sell the gorilla meat earn from it so they poach for a source of income. ![]() Some locals before conservation of the mountain gorillas also survived on gorilla meat and also fed on these gorillas in times of war in their home area. Mountain gorillas are sometimes poached for food and some people eat gorilla meat and this is majorly the wealthy who can afford this meal. The great apes are generally poached to be used in the traditional activities by the traditional healers who use several parts of the mountain gorilla as charms or magic. One of the reasons Why Do People Poach Gorillas is that the mountain gorilla homes are in the most native parts of most of these countries and the people living around the national parks are still believers in traditional methods. One mountain gorilla would need up to 4 full grown adult men to put it down so once one man killed one in the past, the people would feel protected under his rule. Mountain gorillas are still looked at as the king of the jungle and they symbolize strength and power so some local communities still believe once they hunt a mountain gorilla, it will show their strength and will be respected among their peers. Some national parks are being faced with a challenge of mountain gorillas still being killed or stolen from the parks and a few of the reasons are as discussed below. Mountain gorilla numbers were worrying and with a combined effort from some stakeholders and gorilla passionate individuals like the late Dian Fossey saw the protection of the current mountain gorillas and these gorillas gave birth and this raised the numbers to up to 1,063 individuals which put them up from critically endangered species to endangered species and numbers have been growing since then. Before the last mountain gorilla census that was held in 2018, the estimated mountain gorilla population was about 900 individuals putting these primates on the IUCN critically endangered species list. The national parks that are home to the mountain gorillas are the Bwindi Impenetrable forest national park and the Mgahinga forest national park of Uganda, the Virunga national park of the Democratic republic of Congo and the Volcanoes national park of Rwanda. The mountain gorillas have always lived in the Albertine rift and there are 3 national parks that were established in the area to protect the mountain gorillas. The mountain gorillas in the earlier years in the 90s were faced with a possibility of extinction as the numbers kept dropping and this was majorly human effect of the humans poaching the gentle giants. Mountain gorillas are a primate species and a sub species of the eastern gorillas. Why Do People Poach Gorillas: Despite conservation efforts from lost of parties, gorillas are still endangered animals.
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