Gorillas are in threat of coronavirus
Gorillas are posing a significantly higher risk of getting infected with coronavirus anytime, as they are the closest creature of humankind. Especially, countries who live on gorilla tourism for economy are at greater risk of that.
Congo's Virunga National Park, home to about a third of the world's mountain gorillas, is barring visitors until 1 June.
This decision came after Thomas R Gillespie and Fabian H Leendertz of the Great Ape Health consortium wrote in the journal Nature warning that "It is unknown whether the morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 in humans are similar in apes. However, transmission of even mild human pathogens to apes can lead to moderate-to-severe outcomes," reports Independent.
They added "Countries should suspend their tourism business and reduce any kind of research activity for the time being."
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Gorillas are posing a significantly higher risk of getting infected with coronavirus anytime, as they are the closest creature of humankind. Especially, countries who live on gorilla tourism for economy are at greater risk of that.
Around 1,000 mountain gorillas live in protected areas in Congo, Uganda and Rwanda where restrictive measures have been initiated to keep away the gorillas from coronavirus outbreak.
Paula Kahumbu, chief executive of the Kenya-based conservation group WildlifeDirect, told the Associated Press that "every possible effort must be made" to protect mountain gorillas because so few are left in the wild.
"We know that gorillas are very sensitive to human diseases," she said. "If anyone has a cold or a flu they are not allowed to go and see the gorillas.
"With coronavirus having such a long time of no symptoms in some cases, it means that we could actually put those gorillas at risk."
Even existing measures may not be enough to protect them. Activists in Uganda has been saying that protective measures to save the gorillas from humans are not practiced effectively.
Uganda hasn't yet announced a shutdown of gorilla tourism but the tourists' number has decreased significantly as an effect of Covid-19 outbreak.
Neighbouring Rwanda also has taken similar steps as Uganda's. But it's a country where tourism business is the top foreign exchange earner. So experts have shown concerns that this might expose the gorillas even more towards any infectious disease, such as Covid-19.
