This largest of the great apes inhabits a number of isolated areas on the forested mountain slopes of eastern Zaire and parts of Uganda and Rwanda. Its population is estimated at approximately 400. Although much of the animal’s range is within national parks and reserves, human’s growing needs for farming and grazing lands have reduced these areas. These disruptions may also force other animals, such as elephant and buffalo, into a reduced habitat where they compete with the gorilla for the same foods.

Listed as an endangered species, the mountain gorilla has some protection in a ban among most zoos against the acquisition of specimens and in restrictive controls against international trade.