CONGO PROTECTS 125,000 GORILLAS WITH NEW PARK
In 2008, the Wildlife Conservation Society discovered that an estimated 15,000 western lowland gorillas were living in the northwestern quadrant of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, in that most densely forested region, a 1,765-square-mile national park has been created, the third park in Congo designed to protect the greater habitat of some 125,000 lowland gorillas. In addition to safeguarding gorillas, Ntokou-Pikounda National Park shelters the great apes’ forest neighbors, including around 800 elephants and 940 chimpanzees, as well as wetlands with huge numbers of fish, crocodiles, and Congo’s largest and most secure population of hippos. Also, it protects locals, who have hope that the tourism economy picks up and gives them an incentive to work with the rest of the world to save some portion of a wilder Africa. Via New York Times.

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Tags: africa

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