Post by cjm on Sept 5, 2016 8:40:44 GMT
World's largest gorillas 'one step from going extinct'
AFP Wired World 05 Sep 2016 05:10 (South Africa)
by Kerry SHERIDAN The world's largest gorillas have been pushed to the brink of extinction by a surge of illegal hunting in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and are now critically endangered, officials said Sunday.
With just 5,000 Eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) left on Earth, the majestic species now faces the risk of disappearing completely, officials said at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's global conference in Honolulu.
Four out of six of the Earth's great apes are now critically endangered, "only one step away from going extinct," including the Eastern Gorilla, Western Gorilla, Bornean Orangutan and Sumatran Orangutan, said the IUCN in an update to its Red List, the world's most comprehensive inventory of plant and animal species.
Chimpanzees and bonobos are listed as endangered.
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