Rare Cross River gorillas, babies spotted

CONSERVATIONISTS have captured the first images of a group of rare Cross River gorillas with multiple babies in Nigeria’s Mbe mountains, proof that the subspecies once feared to be extinct is reproducing amid protection efforts.

Only around 300 Cross River gorillas were known to be alive at one point in the isolated mountainous region in Nigeria and Cameroon, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which captured the camera trap images in May. More colour images were recovered last month.

John Oates, professor emeritus at the City University of New York and a primatologist who helped establish conservation efforts for the gorillas more than two decades ago, was excited about the new images.

“It was great to see evidence that these gorillas in these mountains are reproducing successfully because there have been so few images in the past,” he said.

Experts don’t know how many Cross River gorillas remain in the mountain cluster and have been trying to track the subspecies for some time.

About 50 cameras were set up in 2012, and multiple images have been captured in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary and in Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains community forest and Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary.

But Cross River gorillas are notoriously difficult to capture together on camera, and no images had captured multiple infants.

An alliance of nine local communities, the Conservation Association of the Mbe Mountains, has been working with the Wildlife Conservation Society since the mid-1990s to help protect the Cross River gorillas. Since that time, there have been no recorded deaths in Nigeria, the society said.

The gorillas at one point had been thought to be extinct, according to the society’s Nigeria country director, Andrew Dunn.

“It’s a big success story that shows communities can protect their wildlife,” he said.

Cross River gorillas have been threatened for decades primarily by hunting, but also by loss of habitat. The subspecies was “rediscovered” in the late 1980s.

About 100 Cross River gorillas have since been recorded in Nigeria’s Cross River State and about 200 in Cameroon in a trans-border region of about 12 000 square kilometres.

A team of about 16 eco-guards have been recruited from surrounding communities to patrol and protect the gorillas and other wildlife, Dunn said.