The FVGP welcomed a young female gorilla to its quarantine facility on June 8, 2011. Like all other chimpanzee and gorilla orphans in Equatorial Africa , she was captured illegally by hunters who likely also killed her parents. Unlike most great ape orphans, she managed to survive and was ceased by local wildlife authorities. She is now undergoing the end of her quarantine phase and will join 6 other orphaned gorillas with whom she will undergo forest rehabilitation, away from humans. All gorillas and chimpanzees are threatened with extinction in the wild within the next couple of decades if current illegal hunting trends persist , if the unsustainable extraction of natural ressources continues, added to an increasing trend in emerging infectious diseases in some locations. Gorillas are currently classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. |