MOUNTAIN GORILLA

The Mountain Gorilla

This is one of the greatest comebacks in conservation history. In the 1980s, mountain gorillas were on the edge of extinction — fewer than 250 remained in the wild. Today, that number has climbed past 1,000. It's a testament to decades of effort, armed guards, veterinary programs, and a tourism model that showed local communities that living gorillas are worth more than dead ones.

Mountain gorillas live in the misty highland forests of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — some of the most politically volatile real estate on Earth. Virunga National Park alone has seen rangers killed in the line of duty. These animals survive not because the world made it easy, but because people fought for them.

But 'recovered' is a dangerous word. With only about 1,063 individuals, mountain gorillas remain just one outbreak of disease, one wave of violence, one natural disaster away from catastrophe.