The plight of mountain gorillas could be worse than previously thought, according to a new DNA study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute’s Department of Primatology.

The study estimated the number of mountain gorillas living in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, one of just two locations in the world where the creatures survive in the wild, reports the New Scientist.

Traditional counting methods — based on the number of nests in the park — suggest a population of around 336 gorillas. But that figure drops by around 10 percent to 302 animals according to the new method which took DNA samples from piles of dung.

“We assumed that each individual constructs a single nest, but genetic analysis shows that several individuals construct more than one nest,” said Katerina Guschanski, who led the study.

But Guschanski said the study at least suggested that the population was stable. The number of gorillas was estimated at 320 in a 2003 census, and at 300 in 1997.

Mountain gorillas can also be found in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the population is estimated at 380.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Conservation, Primates, Wild, apes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.