"Bush Meat" in Africa

By David Bjerklie

While a few great apes live in luxury in the new Congo Gorilla Forest in the Bronx, many of their wild relatives are being killed or crowded out of their homelands in Africa. The chief threats to their survival are threefold:

LOSS OF HABITAT Gorillas still roam extensive areas in Central Africa. But they find themselves increasingly confined to smaller and smaller islands of forest, only a fraction of which have been set aside as wild-animal preserves. Logging is a major problem, although if done prudently the displacement is temporary; the removal of selected trees can even increase, over time, the type of vegetation gorillas prefer. Logging roads, on the other hand, are deadly because they provide access to poachers.

HUNTING So-called bush meat, which includes gorilla flesh, has long been an important part of local diets. But as the human population grows and new roads make it easier to ship gorilla meat to the cities, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better. There are laws against killing gorillas for any reason, but enforcement is spotty.

WAR The civil wars that have killed or dislocated millions of Central Africans in the past decade have also made gorillas more vulnerable to depredations. "Even now," says Amy Vedder of the Wildlife Conservation Society, "significant portions of gorilla habitat are unreachable by conservation forces because of the continued fighting. Until that stops, we won't even know what we've lost."

--By David Bjerklie