Mountain gorillas are easygoing vegetarians who lead a peaceful, playful life. Large males patiently allow young gorillas to climb all over them without a murmur of protest, and they are not aggressive toward humans unless they are threatened.

GORILLAS IN THE MIST
   Mountain gorillas are one of the most endangered animals in the world. Scientists estimate that there are about 600 individuals, living in 2 populations of about 300 each, separated by about 20 miles. Their entire world consists of 285 square miles of high-elevation rain forest in east-central Africa. They are endangered from habitat loss, poaching, and war. No mountain gorillas live in captivity. Mountain gorillas live at high elevations, 10,000 feet or higher on the slopes of volcanoes. Mountain gorillas are herbivores, eating plants like wild celery, thistle, and nettles. Special treats are bamboo and bracket fungus. Their food plants grow profusely in the cool, moist mountain climate of their range in Rwanda, Zaire, and Uganda. Gorillas live in family troops led by the largest male, called the silverback because of the beautiful silver fur on his back. They are fiercely protective of their young and will defend them literally to the death.

THREATS
    Africa's first National Park for mountain gorillas was first extablished in 1925 in Zaire. The gorillas were relatively protected until 1960, when civil war broke out and park protection disappeared. Poachers set out snares to capture animals for food, and gorillas were caught in the snares. The gorillas also were killed intentionally for their meat and parts; gorilla hands and heads were sold as souvenirs to tourists. The gorillas have lost large amounts of habitat to agriculture. The countries in which they live have some of the highest human population densities in the world. Every acre that is not protected is farmed.

CONSERVATION
    Gorilla conservation began again in the late 1970s when an international consortium of conservation organizations established the Mountain Gorilla Project to bring gorilla tourism to the area and educate Rwandans about the gorillas. The integrated program of antipoaching, tourism, and education, has had a profound effect on the local people's attitudes. Gorillas were placed in carefully controlled groups so tourists could view them at close range. Gorilla tourism was so successful that gorilla viewing at one time was Rwanda's third- largest earner of foreign currency. Gorilla populations in Rwanda have risen from a low of 250 in 1981 to about 300.

A tragic civil war that erupted in Rwanda in the early 1990s, claiming the lives of 500,000 people, and creating refugee camps with 750,000 people living in destitution on the borders of the gorillas' reserves. Continuing political unrest threatens to undo almost 20 years of remarkable conservation work. Luckily, it did not. But, if future wars are to occur, what would be awaiting the gorilla population ?