Harrison+Reed-Mountain+Gorilla

= Mountain Gorilla (Gorrila beringei beringei)=

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Location and Natural Habitat
The Mountain Gorillas are located in central africa in 2 seperate national parkes in Rwanada and Uganda. its natural habitat is the cool and large forest of central africa were the climate is hot and humid which is perfect for the plants the eat to grow and flourish. The tall trees also provide shelter form their large leaves and transportation by climbing.

Niche
Although the mountain gorillas diet is mostly vegetation its nich is an ombnivore. The gorilla eats many large plants, and causes massive destruction to the vegetation area were it eats. It first breaks down the plant into a size that it can eat before consuming it. These gorillas are known to eat all parts of the plants, even the roots. An averege vegetational diet for a adult mountain gorilla is 60 pounds a day of plants like; celery, nettles, bamboo and thistles. Other than a large cunsomtion of vegetation, the mountain gorillas eat a smaller diet of small insects. It searches for things like ants, worms and other grubs, which are mostly found in nest, bark of trees and underground.

Population Status
The population of the Mountain Gorilla is known to be mainly spread out between several national parks in the central Africa area. In the Virunga National Park in Congo recorded their population of Gorillas was around 81. In other parks in Congo there is a total of 211 Gorillas living in the mountainsides in the parks. There is also an estimated 120 gorillas living in the wild of the center of Rwanda. But event though many people and sources have different assumptions about how many Mountain Gorillas there are world wide, but these estimates are normally somewhere between 674-720 Mountain Gorillas alive today. The main reason why the mountain gorilla is endangered is because they are being hunted by poachers and other hunters for their hide or being traded for other use.

Conservation Efforts
In order to protect the Mountain Gorillas; Rwanda, Uganda and Congo have teamed up together to help save and protect the gorillas. These countries use their national park resources together to add more Authorities to conserve the gorilla population from intruding poachers by sharing their park grounds with one another. The main poaching problem is caused by the bad economy. In this area there are plenty of poor people that rely on hunting and poaching to earn money and to sustain their lives. But adding these new forces isn't only expensive they are very dangerous because they can encounter things like armed poachers or the animals themselves.