The Great Apes
From George Schaller’s seminal studies of mountain gorillas in the Albertine Rift in 1959 to the 2008 discovery of more than 125,000 western lowland gorillas in the northern Republic of Congo by a team of WCS researchers, WCS has shown its commitment to saving Africa’s great apes. In fact, WCS is the only conservation organization working to protect all four gorilla subspecies. Our great ape conservation work also focuses on chimpanzees—our closest genetic relative—and Asia’s orangutans.
Featured Species
The Cross River gorilla is found only along the southern part of the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Intensive agriculture and logging continue to carve these gorillas’ forest habitat into isolated blocks.
Mountain gorillas have thick coats that insulate them from the cold of their cloud forest homes. This endangered subspecies of gorilla exists in just two locations in equatorial Africa.
An estimated 150,000 western lowland gorillas exist in the wild, but their numbers continue to decline due to demand for bushmeat, habitat destruction, and diseases like Ebola.