More gorillas and chimpanzees living in Central Africa’s forests than thought

Leveraging the most comprehensive dataset ever compiled for the gorillas and chimpanzees that live in western Central Africa, scientists have concluded that there are more of the two subspecies than previously estimated, but that most of them also live outside the protected confines of parks and reserves. “It’s great news that the forests of Western Equatorial Africa still contain hundreds of thousands of gorillas and chimpanzees, but we’re also concerned that so many of these primates are outside of protected areas and vulnerable to poachers, disease, and habitat degradation and loss,” conservation scientist Samantha Strindberg of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) said in a statement. The study produced a total population estimate for the central chimpanzee, pictured here, of nearly 130,000 individuals, approximately one-tenth more chimpanzees than previously believed. Image by Emma Stokes/WCS. Strindberg and co-lead author and WCS conservation scientist Fiona Maisels led a team of more than 50 researchers in pulling together wildlife survey data collected between 2003 and 2013 at 59 sites in five countries. Field researchers walked some 8,700 kilometers (5,400 miles) to gather the information used in the study, covering an area of 192,000 square kilometers (74,100 square miles) — larger than the country of Syria or the U.S. state of Washington. They published their work on April 26 in the journal Science Advances. They found that more than 361,000 western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and almost 129,000 central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) inhabit these forests. That’s more than 30 percent more gorillas and…

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