June 26, 2026
The mountain gorilla's recovery from the edge of extinction is one of the most celebrated conservation success stories of the modern era. When serious, coordinated conservation efforts began in the Virunga region in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the global mountain gorilla population had fallen to approximately 240 individuals a number so critically small that the species was, by any credible scientific assessment, approaching functional extinction within a generation.