Gorilla Tour

Gentle and intelligent creatures,gorillas are more closely-related to humankind than many would expect. Fewer than 650 mountain gorillas and 40,000...See more » Gentle and intelligent creatures,gorillas are more closely-related to humankind than many would expect. Fewer than 650 mountain gorillas and 40,000 lowlandgorillas are left in the world. The basic questions are these: Is there a sufficiently large and diverse habitat remaining in the Virungas to support a viable breeding population of gorillas. The database includes layers of information that contain vegetation patterns, gorilla ranging and human use of gorilla habitat, including changes over time, and the impact of human encroachment on the reserve. Young gorillas are capable of impressive acrobatic displays in trees, but adults are usually ground dwellers. There is a high infant-mortality rate among gorillas, so a female’s offspring tend to be spread six to eight years apart. Hanging OnOf the three subspecies of gorillas, the mountain gorilla is the most highly endangered. This looks like a display of gorilla bravura; in fact gorillas normally make such aggressive displays only when they’re threatened. To our yes, none is more striking than our close cousin, the mountain gorilla. Deeply impressed with the region and the gorillas, Akeley later led a success-ful campaign for the estab-lishment of a sanctuary for mountain gorillas. The gorilla’s reputation for ferocity is undeserved. Our goal is to use advanced remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and Global Positioning systems (GPS) technologies (often refered to together as “Geomatics” technologies) to provide a digitized database of the mountain gorilla habitat.See less »