Ebola Threatens Gorillas, Too

August 27, 2004 (Torino, Italy) – Scientists fear that
emerging evidence may suggest a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, which,
in addition to threatening
human lives, would threaten tens of thousands of great apes "in this case
gorillas and chimpanzees" in the Republic of Congo. The announcement was made
by the International Primatological Society (IPS) and Great Ape Survival Project
(GRASP) at the IPS’s 20th Congress, being held this week in Turin, Italy.

Fewer than 100,000 western lowland gorillas remain on Earth.
A study published in the journal Nature last year suggested that when
an ebola
outbreak affects a given area, more than 80 percent of all great apes
living in that area die of the disease

from Conservation International