The Bwindi gorilla population could be wiped out by a highly infectious disease like COVID-19 and it could easily spread between families when gorillas fight or transfer to another group. Further there may be an increase in poaching, the live animal trade and encroachment, along with infrastructure breaking down .ACT NOW TO SAVE ENDAGERED GORILLAS
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site, and home to an estimated half of the world's endangered mountain gorillas.A notice from the IUCN's says it is safest to assume that great apes are susceptible to SARS CoV-2 infection." They advised keeping contact with great apes to an absolute minimum. That means tourism will be extremely risky until the pandemic is fully controlled.The Bwindi gorilla population could be wiped out by a highly infectious disease like COVID-19.
This project will help reduce human related threats to the mountain gorillas by promoting the maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surroundings at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This includes implementing activities that reduce negative interactions between people and gorillas including preventing and controlling cross species disease transmission and reducing human and gorilla conflict. Elsewhere, with the loss of tourism revenue and many people out of work, the poaching
This project will directly address primate conservation by reducing the risk of cross-species disease spread between overlapping populations of gorillas, humans and livestock. By implementing a gorilla-health monitoring program, involving the collection, analysis and evaluation of feacal samples, we will be able to inform timely interventions that could prevent and control potentially fatal disease outbreaks. Gorilla conservation will be achieved through improved gorilla health.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
