A massive decade-long study of Western Equatorial Africa’s gorillas and chimpanzees has uncovered both good news and bad about our nearest relatives. The good news: there are one third more western lowland gorillas and one tenth more central chimpanzees than previously thought. The bad news: the vast majority of these great apes (80 percent) exist outside of protected areas, and gorilla populations are declining by 2.7 percent annually.

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo (May 26, 2017) – A new study by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) has revealed how mining for valuable minerals in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a major driving factor in the illegal hunting of great apes and other wildlife for food.

December 21, 2016 – The Kabobo Natural Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of Africa’s most biodiverse sites, had its boundaries formally approved today by the Provincial Governor of Tanganyika Province – a critical step in establishing and ensuring the effective protection of this important site. 

WASHINGTON (December 13, 2016) — A global campaign recently launched by WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) to stop or reroute a proposed superhighway in Nigeria’s Cross River State has succeeded in securing 100,081 petition signatures in support of the effort. 

NEW YORK (October 27, 2016) — A proposed superhighway in Nigeria’s Cross River State will displace 180 indigenous communities and threaten one of the world’s great centers of biodiversity if completed, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society).

July 27, 2016 – A team of conservation biologists is calling for a worldwide strategy to prevent the unthinkable: the extinction of the world’s largest mammal species.

A recent study by Drexel University, WCS, and other groups shows that the world’s least known chimp  may become threatened due to climate change.

A recent study discovered that bonobos, formerly known as pygmy chimpanzees, are in danger of losing their habitats.

Forest elephants congregate en masse within TNS, a new World Heritage Site, sometimes in groups of 100 or more. Nowhere else in the world are this many forest elephants spotted together. 

The Republic of Congo has formally expanded Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park to include pristine forest Chimps with no fear of humans approach rather than flee New York (February 16, 2012)—The Republic of Congo has formally expanded Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park to protect an increasingly rare treasure: one of Africa’s most pristine forests and a population of “naive” chimpanzees with so little exposure to humans that the curious apes investigate the conservationists who study them rather than run aw...