Captive gorillas are being successfully reintroduced into rainforest areas where they had previously been hunted to extinction.  The study in the nature journal Oryx suggests a new front in the effort to save the great ape.

Researchers at the Aspinall Foundation looked at long-running reintroduction projects in Gabon and the Republic of Congo.  51 western lowland gorillas, most of which had been rescued from the illegal bushmeat trade, were released over a decade from 1996 to 2006.  The animals were closely monitored for survival rates, birth rates, and dispersal.

The researchers found a 90 percent likelihood of the gorillas and their progeny surviving over a 200-year period.  Other than hunting and deforestation, the biggest threat to the gorillas would be an outbreak of disease.

"The gorillas are still living on a knife-edge though,” said lead author Tony King, who runs the Aspinall Foundation’s conservation and reintroduction program.

“Small reintroduced populations are always susceptible to crashes due to random changes in any number of factors. We plan to release more gorillas at both sites, which will increase the chances that the populations will survive. In reality we are still only just beginning.”

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s  (IUCN) Red List considers the 100,000 Western lowland gorillas in Africa’s Congo Basin to be “critically endangered”.