The Coronaviru s which is currently infecting hundreds of thousands of humans may to be able to target other animals as well such as one of our closest relatives’ gorillas (Washington Post). While there is currently no evidence that states other great apes can be infected they can be susceptible to other human respiratory diseases (Washington Post). This has caused great concern for the African Mountain Gorilla who are already an endangered species and diseases such as this could kill them with ease (AP News). Many wildlife parks around Africa are closing in order to protect these animals and keep their population numbers increasing (AP News).
There are only about one thousand African mountain gorillas left in the world and they are split between the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda (AP News). The Congo and Rwanda have already closed down all of their national parks that house mountain gorillas, citing this great threat to their species (AP News). Uganda has yet to close down their parks with gorillas but states that tourism has fallen by so much it would be unnecessary to do so at this point (AP News). The African mountain gorilla was recently removed from the critically endangered list in 2018 but covid-19 may threaten this great success. (The Independent)
https://apnews.com/6ccca2d0e218411cb6b8aa8d60f8357c
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/03/25/coronavirus-wildlife-apes/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/coronavirus-africa-national-parks-gorilla-chimpanzee-drc-rwanda-a9420806.html