The gorilla is the largest of the great apes, and as with the orang-utan it shares around 98% of its DNA with humans, making them a very close relative in terms of their genetic makeup.

The Western Lowland Gorilla (latin: gorilla gorilla gorilla!) is officially classified as “critically endangered” and faces a number of threats in its native Central African rainforest habitat. These animals, most commonly found in Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and parts of Angola and Nigeria are hunted for “bush meat” and are also often killed because they are incorrectly perceived as a violent and threatening creature. Gorillas are in fact peaceful animals for the most part and they typically only become violent when they or their offspring are directly threatened – the familiar chest-beating display being a show of strength and an indication of the enraged state of these creatures.

As they share such a large amount of their genetic code with humans they are also susceptible to human diseases such as measles and in particular the deadly Ebola virus, which is believed to have destroyed significant proportions of the gorilla population in recent years.

It is believed that since the 1980s the gorilla population in the Republic of Congo has halved. Recent finds of previously undiscovered numbers of these animals are encouraging, although the animal remains critically endangered as a gorilla sub-species.

Conservation efforts in the Republic of Congo have proved fruitful with the establishment of protected areas, though as much of the gorilla population is outside these areas they remain at risk from the above factors in addition to the destruction of their rainforest habitat by logging companies.

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