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Ebola 'kills over 5,000 gorillas'

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posted on Oct, 8 2008 @ 11:03 AM
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More than 5,000 gorillas may have died in recent outbreaks of the Ebola virus in central Africa, a study says.


The poor gorillas just can't get a break ... first rampant poaching and hunting and now this.

The report even mentions:

"The Lossi outbreak killed about as many gorillas as survive in the entire eastern gorilla species," the study says.


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I don't think our children will see gorillas at all - they will just be another tragedy and a footnote in the books they read (like the dodo).



posted on Oct, 8 2008 @ 11:26 AM
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Man, that's terrible news.. I love gorillas/monkeys they were always my favorite animal to see when I go to the zoo... the only gorilla our kids will see will be King Kong, sadly.



posted on Oct, 8 2008 @ 11:26 AM
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Man, that's terrible news.. I love gorillas/monkeys they were always my favorite animal to see when I go to the zoo... the only gorilla our kids will see will be King Kong, sadly.



posted on Oct, 8 2008 @ 11:29 AM
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I am deeply sorry to hear about this, my blessings go out to the familys of the gorillas as they loved and watched their communities and loved ones die this terrible death. I pray that they did not suffer too long and death took them swiftly. Mother nature needs to do a cleansing.



posted on Oct, 8 2008 @ 11:31 AM
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reply to post by Ketzer22
 


Personally I hate zoo's but if thats the only way to get some species to survive then I guess has to be. Some animals are just no longer safe in the wild anymore. The only problem then, is maintaining enough of a gene pool to ensure the species survival.

I wonder how many gorillas exist in captivity?



posted on Oct, 9 2008 @ 05:27 AM
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It seems it is not just gorillas that are being affected. Other apes like chimpanzees are also being decimated. They are talking tens of thousands of apes.

Over the past decade or so, tens of thousands of the great apes have died of Ebola in central Africa, along with similar numbers of chimpanzees.


What it does to the body:

Ebola is transmitted by contact with body fluids, and it's rapidly fatal. When people get it, they become so sick so fast--their organs literally liquefy--that others try to stay away from them. What's more, the mere fact of their quick immobility means they can't carry the virus very far. Ebola usually burns through an isolated village or community and then has nowhere else to go.

Western gorillas most affected:

"They defecate and urinate in and around the trees," says Walsh, leaving infected body fluids to sicken the next group. Gorillas also examine the bodies of dead apes they come upon, perhaps because they're smart enough to want to know if whatever claimed that life is a threat to them. This provides another means of direct transmission.


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posted on Oct, 9 2008 @ 05:32 AM
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They can be saved!

"We're not talking about massive vaccination anymore," says Walsh. "We're talking about getting a vaccine into key gorilla populations." And the cost? Perhaps as little as $2 million--chump change, Walsh calls it, to save our closest evolutionary kin from extinction.


So we really need to get this story out there - all these 100's of billions of dollars to save a few banks is good and well, but cant we spare 2 measly million dollars to help Peter Walsh of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Leipzig, Germany save the apes?



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