Wildlife researchers said that they've discovered 125-thousand western lowland gorillas deep in the forests of the Republic of Congo, calling it a major increase in the animal's estimated population.

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The Wildlife Conservation Society, based at the Bronx Zoo, and the Republic of Congo said their census counted the newly discovered gorillas in two areas of the northern part of the country covering 28,968 square kilometres

Previous estimates, dating to the 1980s, put the number of western lowland gorillas at less than 100-thousand.

But the animal's numbers were believed to have fallen by at least 50 percent since then due to hunting and disease, researchers said.

The newly discovered gorilla population now puts their estimated numbers at between 175-thousand to 225-thousand.

Greatest finds

In an interview at the zoo on Tuesday, the Wildlife Conservation Society President and CEO, Steven Sanderson, called it "one of the greatest finds in recent African conservation history."

But Sanderson added that the organisation also feels "a sense of urgency."

"We immediately felt, 'Well, we've gotta be able to deliver on this.' And so there's a combination of great pride and joy followed by real urgency that we need to deliver for these animals," Sanderson told AP Television.

The researchers in the central African nation of Republic of Congo, neighbour of the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, worked out the population figures by counting the sleeping "nests" gorillas make.

The creatures are too reclusive and shy to count individually.

Western lowland gorillas are one of four gorilla subspecies, which also include mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas and cross river gorillas.

All are labelled either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).


High numbers


The Wildlife Conservation Society is not claiming credit for the higher numbers, Sanderson noted.

"The credit really, and the joy should be in the government of Congo and among the citizens of Congo, because they've really committed to this, even in light of a lot of other pressing demands for development and timbering and other resource use," he said.

Nor do the new numbers mean that gorillas are no longer endangered.

Coincidentally, the report was released as primatologists in Edinburgh, Scotland warned that nearly half of the world's 634 types of primates are in danger of becoming extinct due to human activity.

That figure, carried in a comprehensive review of the planet's apes, monkeys, and lemurs, included primate species and subspecies.

Scientists meeting at the International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh said they hoped the report will help spur global action to defend mankind's nearest relatives from deforestation and hunting.

Primatologists warned that species from the giant mountain gorillas of central Africa to the tiny mouse lemurs of Madagascar are on the "Red List" for threatened species maintained by the IUCN.

Western lowland gorillas still face many threats, Sanderson pointed out.

"The greatest threats are really infectious diseases, especially Ebola, and then, increase in the built environment -- transport, road networks, timbering operations that allow people to move in and kill the animals to trade them, sell them for meat, or eat them themselves, so those are the big threats," he said.