The deaths you don't hear about: Ebola has killed off a third of the world's gorillas and chimps

Ebola is currently the single greatest threat to the survival of gorillas and chimpanzees, it has been revealed.

18:13 21 January 2015

Ebola has killed a third of the world’s gorillas and chimpanzees since the 1990s, figures now show. This makes the virus the single greatest threat to their survival with mortality rates as high as 95% for gorillas and 77% for chimpanzees.

Although outbreaks are infrequent, each wipes out huge swathes of the animals, especially if the carcasses are left uncollected.

In 1995, an outbreak killed off 90per cent of gorillas in a national park in Gabon. In 2002-2003 outbreak, 5,000 gorillas were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It is estimated that there are now only 100,000 gorillas left in the wild.

Aside from Ebola, other threats to great apes include poaching, habitat destruction, war and other infectious diseases.

As highlighted in the piece by Meera Inglis on The Conversation, the spread of the deadly virus could be prevented by giving the animals a vaccine. However, the trials of the vaccines, which have already been developed, have not yet been tested with chimps that are affected with the virus.

“Across much of Europe, medical research on great apes is either banned or highly restricted because of their cognitive similarity to humans. The question is whether or not we should make an exception in this case,” says Inglis.