Conservation success leads to new challenges for endangered mountain gorillas

A scientific study published in Scientific Reports suggests that new health challenges may be emerging as a result of conservationists’ success in pulling mountain gorillas back from the brink of extinction.

The study, the first-ever species-wide survey of parasite infections across the entire range of the mountain gorilla, was conducted by an international science team led by the Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Czech Academy of Sciences; University of Veterinary Sciences Brno, Czech Republic; Gorilla Doctors; and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund; in collaboration with the protected area authorities of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (the Rwanda Development Board, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and l’Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature, respectively).

All mountain gorillas live in fully protected national parks in Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, where the potential for spatial expansion is extremely limited due to dense human communities living nearby. Consequently, as gorilla population densities within the protected areas increase, their susceptibility to infectious diseases may also.

Read more here or the full study here.

Read also

• Secrets of the Nano- World: a new comic book about nanotechnology
• Teen duo from Slovakia and Czechia named Global Winner for clean water solution
• Professor Pavel Hozák Receives the Paul Nakane Prize
• Neutrino is lighter than previously thought
• The Earth Prize 2025 goes to Czechia and Slovakia for pioneering water purifier
• Scientists discover compound that “should not exist”
• Horizontal mitochondrial transfer is a key process in tumor biology
• Scientists on track of finding a treatment for autoimmune hair loss
• LASER-PRO: Linking Science and Industry to Shape Europe’s High-Tech Future
• Martian mud flows: a little salt makes a big difference