Until recently, it was believed there were only about 75,000-100,000 Lowland Gorillas left in the wild. That’s why the news that scientists have found 125,000 of them that they did know existed is being viewed as such fantastic news.

The downside is that the location of the gorillas puts them at risk of the Ebola virus, which is deadly to gorillas. That, and humans who illegally hunt them, is what wiped out so many of them in the first place. That doesn’t mean that finding them isn’t great news, but only that the goal now must be to try to keep them alive and reproducing.

There are also a lot of unexplored areas near where they were found, indicating that it’s quite possible that there are more gorillas out there, that we are unaware of.

If they find still more gorillas, this would show a strong growth trend for that population which will help indicate what might be taking place with other animals in that area thought to be on the verge of extinction.

One of the most important issues for this find, however, is that conservation efforts in that area of the world show evidence of working. This is a huge boost for conservationists and primatologists to see that all their effort is working.

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