Mountain gorillas are listed as endangered in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, and face continuous threats such as small population size, limited habitat, poaching, and habitat destruction. There are only two populations, one in the Virunga volcanic mountains that border Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and one in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The mountain gorilla is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla. “This is particularly important in endangered species which are vulnerable to extinction, such as mountain gorillas.” “Understanding how animals obtain water is increasingly important in the face of climate change, as warmer temperatures and more extreme weather conditions are predicted to influence water availability, which could have implications for how they use their limited habitat,” said author Dr Edward Wright, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Because mountain gorillas live at higher elevations, they are also more susceptible to faster temperature rises. However, increasing temperatures will make them more reliant on free-standing water, such as a stream, river, puddle or swamp. Mountain gorillas are rainforest dwelling species and get most of their water requirements from the plants they consume. The results have important implications for the behavior and conservation of mountain gorillas, which are faced with continued increases in temperature and frequency of extreme weather events due to the climate crisis. Researchers used 10 years of data from observations on the only two existing mountain gorilla populations and found that both populations drank water significantly more often at higher average temperatures than cooler ones. By Suzanna Burgelman, Frontiers science writer Image: Martha RobbinsĮndangered mountain gorillas increase the frequency they drink water as the temperature increases, suggesting a likely impact of climate change on their behavior, finds a new study published in Frontiers in Conservation Science.
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