How many eastern gorillas are left?

In 1989 there were approx. 324 eastern gorillas G.b. beringei in Virunga Mts.A census of this population in 2000 led to an estimateof 359–395 individuals , while a 2003 census estimated 380 individuals. A census, taken in of 2010, produced an estimate of 480 individuals.

Bwindi Gorilla numbered around 300 individuals during the early 1990s and in 1997 . A census in 2002 shown number of 320 individuals, while a 2006 census counted about . 300 gorillas. Surveys from 1989 to 1995 show that there were approximately 16,900 gorillas.

Roughly 86% of these lived in the Kahuzi-Biega N. P. – Kasese region. Approximately two-thirds are within the Kahuzi-Biega N. P. and Maiko N. P. There is concern that there has been a substantial decline in the number of G. b. graueri as a result of poaching related to coltan ore mining and of the warfare that has engulfed the whole of the range of G. b. graueri from the late 1990s until the present.

The above surveys indicated that the total number of G. beringei is roughly 17,500 individuals. Of the approx. 17,500 G. beringei, roughly 96% are G. b. graueri (eastern lowland gorilla) 2% are G. b.beringei (mountain gorilla) and 2% are Bwindi gorillas.

Gorilla beringei is, by far, the rarest of Africa’s four species of great ape The density of G. b. beringei in the Virunga Mts was ca. 1.0 ind/km² in 2003 and 1.3 ind/km² in 2010. The density of the Bwindi Gorilla in the Bwindi Impenetrable N. P. is 1.4 ind/km².