Uganda's gorilla population growing

April 21, 2007

Wildlife officials say the number of mountain gorillas in Uganda has increased by six percent since 2002.

Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is one of only two places in the world where the rare gorillas exist, the Wildlife Conservation Society said Friday in a release.

DNA samples from fecal specimens show there are 340 gorillas in Bwindi, up from 320 in 2002 and from 300 in 1997.

The Impenetrable National Park in the Virunga Volcanoes -- on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo -- has also seen an increase in gorillas. The last census in 2003 revealed 380 gorillas, up from 324 in 1989.

The current total of mountain gorillas at both locations brings the worldwide tally to approximately 720 individual animals, the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

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