Gorillas Barely in our Midst

"Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken," warns the World Conservation Union. They recently published their 2007 Red List of Threatened Species. Among other changes, the western gorilla has moved from endangered to critically endangered, due to commercial bush-meat trade and Ebola.

"Great apes are our closest living relatives and very special creatures," Russ Mittermeier, head of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, says. "We could fit all the remaining great apes in the world into two or three large football stadiums. There just aren't very many left."

If the rate of decline continues we could lose them all in 10-12 years. Even with ideal conditions it will take them decades to return to normal levels.

In the same list, the Mauritius Echo parakeet made the opposite move -- improving from critically endangered to only endangered. Positive change is always possible.

Read more at Discovery.com.

Image used under a Creative Commons license; by Mahalie from Flickr.