Scientific Meeting - Saving Gorillas

Understanding the threats and finding the solutions to conserving one of our closest relatives. This meeting will give an overview of gorilla taxonomy, distribution and populations and will consider the threats to - and potential conservation solutions for - the last remaining wild gorillas.

Publicity on the killing of several mountain gorillas in DRC's Virunga National Park this year and the success of two of ZSL's other gorilla-focused conservation initiatives, the London Zoo 'Gorilla Kingdom' exhibit and a BBC Saving Planet Earth programme featuring ZSL's gorilla conservation project in Gabon, highlight people’s continuing fascination with, and support for, these great apes.

In this meeting we begin with an overview of gorilla taxonomy, distributions and population sizes, and then consider conservation of the last remaining wild gorillas, using overviews and case studies of different subspecies to demonstrate their particular threats and potential solutions, under very different political, social, economic and environmental climates.

All the gorilla subspecies are threatened with extinction, due to various combinations of hunting, habitat loss, disease and armed conflict. The recent IUCN Red List reassessment of the western lowland gorilla as critically endangered demonstrates that the long-term survival of even the most numerous subspecies is far from assured. We evaluate options for the conservation of different subspecies: for example, one commonly-lauded tool for gorilla conservation is ecotourism, but is it working, where and why? Is it always a risk worth taking, and if not, what alternatives are there?

Organised by Dr Noëlle Kümpel, Bushmeat and Forests Conservation Programme, ZSL and Department of Anthropology, University College London

Speakers
Dr Liz Williamson - IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group/University of Stirling
Dr Chris Sandbrook – Roehampton University/ZSL
Dr Peter D. Walsh – Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Guest Chair: Ian Redmond, OBE – GRASP/Ape Alliance

The talks are free and open to the public - talks will begin at 6.00pm. A dinner with the speakers will follow this Scientific Meeting and places must be booked in advance. Please download dinner booking form for further information.

Saving Gorillas Scientific Meeting abstracts (139 KB)

Please note that this event was part of the 2007-08 Scientific Meetings programme

Further Information: please contact Joy Hayward, Scientific Meetings Coordinator, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London NW1 4RY.
Tel:+44 (0)20 7449 6227. Fax: +44 (0)20 7449 6411. E-mail: joy.hayward@zsl.org.

Related links
ZSL Scientific Meetings