Mountain Gorillas in Uganda

Step By Step Guide

• Use the reading, ‘Box 5: Mountain gorillas in the Virunga mountains face new threats as their habitat changes’ on page 21 from ‘Wildlife in a changing climate’ by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), to discuss the case study of how climate change and anthropogenic activities are affecting the natural habitat and range distribution of Mountain Gorillas in Africa.
• Apply the understanding from the previous section to explain how climate and non-climate stressors can affect the ecological balance and thus, the natural feeding and ranging patterns of the Mountain Gorillas.
• Explain that increased temperatures may move the growth of vegetation to higher altitudes and force them to inhabit higher areas. However, due to the tapering nature of the mountaintops, Gorilla habitat gets further restricted.
• Discuss how climate induced shifting bamboo cover not only adversely affects food availability for the Gorillas but also resource availability for people dependent on it thus, bringing them in direct conflict with each other.
• Further, explain that changing climatic conditions and heavy reliance on forest resources by humans has resulted in large scale habitat degradation putting further constraints on the physical and biological well-being of the species, making them more vulnerable to climate change.