Found: 125,000 gorillas that they missed

THEY weigh 450lb, stand 6ft tall and are among the most striking animals on earth.

But after a solitary existence spanning centuries in some of Africa's remotest areas, a lost world of western lowland gorillas has been discovered.

In a rare instance of good news for one of the world's most endangered species, the hidden trove, found deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo, at least doubles all previous population estimates and has astounded primatologists.

As many as 125,000 of the animals were identified in two of the country's northern regions spanning 18,000 square miles following a rigorous census conducted by scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and local government researchers.

The results of the census were announced yesterday at a meeting of the International Primatological Society in Edinburgh.

Numbers of the species, long the victims of deforestation, warfare, poachers and the Ebola virus, were until recently put at 100,000.

It is understood there will now be moves to establish new protected areas.

Emma Stokes, a WCS biologist who helped co-ordinate the study, said the dense forests in the Congo had kept the animals out of human sight.

She said: "This is a significant discovery because of the terrible decline in population of these magnificent creatures to Ebola and bush meat.

"It was an incredible moment when we realised the figures we were getting in. They had not been previously recorded because these are remote areas, inaccessible and tough to survey."

Western lowland gorillas are one of four gorilla sub-species, which also include mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, and cross river gorillas.

All are labelled endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The researchers worked out the figures by identifying and counting the sleeping "nests" gorillas make. The creatures are too reclusive to count individually.

Craig Stanford, professor of anthropology and biology at the University of Southern California, said: "If these census results are confirmed, they are incredibly exciting, the kind of good news we rarely find."

While calling the discovery important, Ms Stokes said it did not mean gorillas in the wild were now safe.

"The gorillas are still under threat from Ebola and hunting for bush meat. We must not become complacent. Ebola can wipe out thousands in a short time," she said.

Species on the brink of extinction

RONDO DWARF GALAGO

The world's smallest galago, the Rondo dwarf galago survives in less than 100,000sq km of tiny forest pockets, scattered in two widely separated regions of coastal Tanzania.

There is no definitive population estimate for the tiny primate, which weighs just 60g, but the species is known to be under severe threat as a result of habitat loss.

BLACK-FACED LION TAMARIN

Barely 300 black-faced lion tamarins survive today – almost all of them confined to a single small island off the coast of Brazil.

For more than a century and a half, biologists heard rumours of an unknown primate living in seaside forests on the far south-eastern coast. Despite expeditions throughout the 20th century, nothing conclusive was found until its discovery in 1990.

PENNANT'S RED COLOBUS MONKEY

With its population mainly confined to one corner of the island of Bioko, the monkey is heavily poached to supply the bushmeat markets of west Africa. Its disappearance from the remainder of central west Africa is a mystery.

There have been no confirmed sightings of the species for 20 years.

Next decade is critical for one in three primates

A THIRD of the world's most seriously endangered primates could disappear within ten years if nothing is done to protect them, an expert warned yesterday.

A global review found that around half the world's primate species are threatened with extinction because they are being eaten or their habitats destroyed.

Those most at risk may have less than a decade left if no action is taken, Russell Mittermeier, chairman of the International Union for Conservation of Nature's primate specialist group, warned.

Speaking at a conference in Edinburgh, he said: "About one in three are in the critically endangered or endangered category, which means they could disappear in the next five to ten years if we don't protect them."

The latest red list of threatened species shows that, of the world's 634 recognised primates, 11 per cent are critically endangered and 22 per cent are endangered.

In Asia, about 70 per cent of primates face extinction.

The figures were revealed at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, where 1,200 conservationists are gathered.

Dr Mittermeier said humanity had a "moral obligation" to conserve its closest living relatives.

In Africa, the red colobus monkey was found to be particularly at risk, with 11 of the 13 kinds critically endangered or endangered.