Nigeria: Thought to be extinct for ages, rare gorillas captured on camera with babies

In a fortunate rare sighting, conservationists have managed to capture images of a group of rare Cross River gorillas. According to reports, the gorillas were accompanied by multiple babies and were spotted in Nigeria’s Mbe mountains. The sighting gave conservationists the much-needed proof about the survival of this rare subspecies of gorilla that was previously thought to be extinct.

'Extremely elusive' gorillas

As per reports, at one point it was believed that only 300 of these Cross-River gorillas existed in the isolated mountainous region in Nigeria and Cameroon. These gorillas was first captured back in May by the Wildlife Conservation Society. More colour images were taken as recently as last June by trap cameras.

Professor emeritus at the City University of New York, John Oates, who is also a dermatologist, helped establish conservation efforts for the gorillas almost two decades ago. In his statement, he said: “It was great to see ... evidence that these gorillas in these mountains are reproducing successfully because there have been so few images in the past. We know very little about what is going on with reproduction with this subspecies, so to see many young animals is a positive sign.”

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The isolated mountainous region has 50 trap cameras that were installed in 2012. Since then multiple images have been captured in Cameroon’s Kagwene Gorilla Sanctuary, Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains community forest and Afi Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary. Despite certain sightings, the Cross-River gorillas have proved extremely elusive and there have been no images of multiple infants.

The Cross-River gorillas were at one point believed to be dead, and thus these new images are not only good news for the species but also for community conservation projects because nine local communities have been working together since the mid-1990s to ensure the survival of the species.

(Input/Image Credit AP)

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