Rare gorillas spotted with babies on board

New pictures of the world’s rarest gorillas have thrilled conservationists who feared they were close to extinction.

Camera traps in Nigeria’s densely forested Mbe Mountains captured the first images of a group of cross river gorillas, showing several infants and young clinging to their mothers’ backs.

‘‘We know very little about what is going on with reproduction with this subspecies, so to see many young animals is a positive sign,’’ said John Oates, a primatologist who helped to establish conservation efforts for the gorillas more than two decades ago.

The cross river gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) is the rarest of the four gorilla subspecies and scientists cannot be certain how many are left, though it was estimated there were between 200 and 300. Estimates in the past have typically relied on evidence of nests, dung and feeding trails in the mountains between Nigeria and Cameroon. The apes are extremely wary of humans, who have hunted them for bushmeat or cleared forest habitat for farming, and tend to live in the most rugged and inaccessible areas.

Evidence that at least one group is thriving is being credited to conservation efforts to secure their habitat across 7800 square kilometres of rainforest.

Nine communities have been working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, which captured the new images, since the mid1990s to protect the apes. One strategy has been to recruit a team of 16 guards from communities near the apes’ habitats to protect them and other wildlife. Since then there have been no recorded deaths in Nigeria.

– The Times