Gorilla Extinction Accelerating

[SETIsLady]

(AP) Gorillas in central Africa are in danger from illegal logging, mining and from hunters who are killing great apes for meat, said a joint report from the United Nations and Interpol released Wednesday.

A previous report in 2002 estimated that only 10 percent of gorillas would remain by 2030. The author of the 2002 report and of the newly released one said that estimate now appears too optimistic.

"We fear now that the gorillas may become extinct from most parts of their range in perhaps 15 years," U.N. Environmental Program's Christian Nellemann said.

More:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/ ... 8641.shtml

not sure what else to say....

[Linnea]

This is just stunning. Can anything or anyone prevent these extinctions?

Sadly, human populations are considered expendable as well.

What does that say for humanity? We are next, I guess.

[Psychicwolf]

Such beauty...such human disregard for that beauty. Sometimes I think we don't deserve to inhabite such a beautiful world when mainly our kind seeks such ugliness.

It's the babies' hands, big and supple and jet black, that you notice first. Hands like a carpenter's. Hands that already look like they have been long in the world. Hands that are called into active service from their first day. Because, when a baby gorilla is born, there is only one thing it absolutely must do to survive - hang on.

Gorillas are important not just because they look like us, but because they are us. At least, they are in terms of 98 per cent of their DNA.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 31709.html

[cherry]

Darfur gorillas .... I'm ready.