With the whole globe at surge of the deadly CoronaVirus disease, several conservatives have hinted and warned on fears about the disease crossing to humanity’s ‘next of kin’ the mountain gorillas. Regardless of the fact that these apes are highly endangered, once the virus crosses over to them, it could whip out their entire population because they are highly sensitive to human diseases.
Given the fact that mountain gorillas share a close genetic similarity in the DNA makeup with humans, them too are susceptible to contracting the Corona virus disease once they come close to a transferrable individual. Mountain gorillas can contract some respiratory diseases that humans contract.
According to research by Worldwide Fund for Nature, a simple cold can kill a cold. This justifies the reason why visitors never come into close contact with the apes. More so, visitors that show some illnesses or even signs of illnesses such as cough and sneezing are never allowed to visit the apes’ habitats.
However, some diseases can still be passed on to the gorillas from humans who have none of the suspectable and noticeable disease symptoms. In such circumstances, the normal park efforts to protect the gorillas from tourists may not be enough thus posing great danger.
Over the last century, the gorilla population has decreased majorly because of disease and illegal hunting. Since 1996, mountain gorillas have continued to be listed as endangered though their population is slowly growing.
There are more assumptions by observers that the Covid-19 crisis could give chance to illegal poachers. This is so in that poachers could take advantage the less tourism activities around the park with thought of laxity within security and choose to hunt down the precious creatures. Also, the populations living nearby the protected areas could come into close contact with these animals as they go on with some of their human activities once they are not managed.
Never the less, amidst the current corona virus epidemic crisis, countries that are home to mountain gorillas have put up a temporary ban on all visits and tours to these areas. These East African countries have gone ahead to stop all passenger carriers across all their boarders. Nature conservationists welcomed these measures in support of wildlife welfare.
It should be noted that tourism is Uganda’s major foreign exchange earner and gorilla tourism is atop the list of main tourist attractions in the country. Over 50% of UWA’s revenue generated from wildlife tourism comes from tracking gorillas. At least 30,000 tourists visit Uganda to particularly track gorillas and a single gorilla tracking permit costs up to $600. Therefore, there is great need to pay utmost attention upon protecting the mountain gorillas.
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