How many gorillas live in the Virunga Massif? This is a question that has not been answered since the last census of the habitat in 2003. The Virunga Volcanoes is one of only two locations where mountain gorillas live. The last census in 2003 resulted in an estimate of 380 individual gorillas. For the past 8 weeks the Wildlife and National Park Authorities of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo collaborated on this important, trans-boundary census of the Virunga populations of mountain gorillas.
The 2010 mountain gorilla census is conducted by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). The exercise was also supported by the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (a coalition of AWF, WWF and FFI), the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
The early results are promising, and conservationists are hopeful to receive at the end of the study estimates of increasing number of mountain gorilla in the Virunga Massif. All results of this work will be vital in looking at population trends and determining the best collaborative way forward for mountain gorilla conservation.