Happy World Gorilla Day: Efforts Being Made To Save The Species

World Gorilla Day is marked every year on 24 September. It was first celebrated in 2017, on the 50th anniversary of the day in 1967 when Dian Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda’s Virunga volcanoes, and it is a day to raise awareness and support for all gorillas. For mountain gorillas, there is real progress to celebrate: numbers have grown to at least 1,063, and in 2018 they were moved from Critically Endangered to Endangered. The other three gorilla subspecies are still Critically Endangered.

The four kinds of gorilla

There are two gorilla species, each with two subspecies. The eastern gorilla includes the mountain gorilla, found only in the Virunga volcanoes shared by Uganda, Rwanda and Congo and in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and the Grauer’s or eastern lowland gorilla of eastern Congo, the largest gorilla. The western gorilla includes the western lowland gorilla, the most numerous, found across Central Africa, and the Cross River gorilla on the Nigeria–Cameroon border, the rarest, with only a few hundred left. Gorillas in zoos are western lowland gorillas.

The threats gorillas face

Across their range, gorillas are threatened by habitat loss to farming, logging and mining, by hunting for bushmeat and by snares set for other animals, and by disease, including Ebola, which has killed large numbers of western lowland gorillas in the past, and respiratory infections caught from people. Conflict in eastern Congo makes protection difficult for Grauer’s gorillas and parts of the mountain gorilla range. Climate change adds longer-term pressure; read about climate change and mountain gorillas.

Why mountain gorillas are recovering

Mountain gorillas numbered only about 250 in the Virungas in the early 1980s. Their recovery comes from decades of protection by rangers, veterinary care for snared or sick gorillas, cooperation between Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, and carefully controlled tourism, whose permit fees pay for protection and share income with communities around the parks. See our guides to how tourism helped save mountain gorillas and where the permit fee goes.

How World Gorilla Day is marked

Conservation organisations, zoos, schools and parks hold events, talks and fundraising activities, and many organisations share updates from the field. In Uganda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and partners around Bwindi and Mgahinga often mark the day with community events, school activities and messages about gorilla protection. In the same season, Rwanda holds Kwita Izina, its annual ceremony to name newborn gorillas, usually held in September or October.

How you can help

You can donate to established organisations working with gorillas, buy products such as Gorilla Conservation Coffee, recycle old phones to reduce demand for minerals mined in gorilla habitat, and share accurate information about responsible gorilla tourism. Visiting the gorillas, with a permit costing US$800 or US$600 in April, May and November, also directly funds their protection. See our guide to supporting gorilla conservation from home.

Frequently asked questions