There is a current study on the mountain gorillas ongoing within the Virunga ranges of Africa. This census is basically being conducted in the Volcanoes national park of Rwanda, Virunga of DR Congo together within the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Parks of Uganda. The survey mainly focuses on the effectiveness and efficiency of all the conservation and preservation efforts that were established for the well being of these endangered creatures. They were put up for the protection of mountain gorillas and also to stimulate an increase in their numbers.
The census is therefore aiming at accessing the progress of the conservation and preservation programs and decide on the way forward for the animals or even see if some measures employed should be improved or changed for the well being of the gorillas. The WWF Global Director – Carlos Drews, explains this census as a way of helping conservationists in establishing the best conservation procedures and measures for the protection of the estranged wildlife – the mountain gorillas in the Virunga ranges of Africa.
However, this is not the first census to ever be carried out in regards to mountain gorillas, it follows the gorilla census which was carried out in 2011. It is also done on the Virunga region and recorded about 480 mountain gorillas. The Census is usually taken after a duration of four (4) years by The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC)together with the Fauna & Flora International (FFI) & WWF through the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) as well as other partners.
Over the previous years, the numbers of mountain gorillas within the Virunga region have seen a great rise / increase basically due to the endless conservation efforts and programmes staged by the governments and tourism bodies in all the three countries, the conservation organizations, park rangers as well as the caring local communities. It is therefore no doubt, the census will show the gradual rise in mountain gorilla totals.
The ongoing census is likely to showcase in 2017 with much more detailed facts about the mountain gorillas such as sex and age ratio, their location relating to others in the Virunga area, etc. Apparently, about six staff teams from different organizations are already with in the Virunga vicinity; moving on foot while taking in account for the signs of mountain gorillas, noting their nest spots and taking faecal samples for hereditary examination. It therefore points out that the census will take into account on quite a number of factors compiled together from all the research carried out in the field by the different organizations’ teams together with the different lab examinations done by the different teams hence providing an accurate set of results. It is therefore very evident that the census is going to produce an update accurate report as it will contain the most recent scientific and technology advancements like electronic data collection in the field to the genetic analyses conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to the statistical analyses used to interpret the collected data of the Virunga area mountain gorilla population.