Tourists could be spreading the virus causing COVID-19 to wild mountain gorillas by taking selfies with the animals without following precautions. Researchers from Oxford Brookes University examined nearly 1,000 Instagram posts and found most gorilla trekking tourists were close enough to the animals, without face masks on, to make transmission of viruses and diseases possible.
Image/Andrew Walmsley
Examining the photos from people visiting mountain gorillas in East Africa, lead author and Oxford Brookes University Primate Conservation alumnus Gaspard Van Hamme said: “The risk of disease transmission between visitors and gorillas is very concerning. It is vital that we strengthen and enforce tour regulations to ensure gorilla trekking practices do not further threaten these already imperiled great apes”.
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African wild dog’s are one of Africa’s rarest carnivores. Credit: FFI
Images captured on camera traps installed in South Sudan’s Southern National Park included an African wild dog, one of the continent’s rarest carnivores, providing further evidence that South Sudan is a potential treasure trove of threatened species whose populations are in steep decline elsewhere in Africa.
“The early camera-trap images have come up with some thrilling results and we expect more exciting discoveries the longer the cameras are out in the field. FFI’s team had to adapt operations when the Covid-19 restrictions came into force, only making the challenge more interesting.” Benoit Morkel, FFI Landscape Manager, South Sudan
Fears gorillas will be wiped out by coronavirus over links to human DNA
Conservationists have worked to get the number of gorillas back up to over 1,000 after the animals were nearly rendered extinct by hunting. However, Covid-19 now poses a deadly threat
13:17, 18 DEC 2020
Almost half of the world’s mountain gorilla population can be found in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Image: Getty Images)
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