Killer virus drives gorillas to extinction

AN EBOLA plague is killing thousands of gorillas and driving the great apes to extinction, researchers warned yesterday.

Scientists estimate that between 2001 and 2005 the virus killed 5,500 gorillas in just one 2,700 square kilometre region in west Africa.

The researchers tracked western gorilla groups and nests in and around the Lossi sanctuary in the Republic of Congo.

They found evidence of “massive gorilla die-offs” caused by the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus (Zebov).

Dr Magdalena Bermejo, of the University of Barcelona in Spain, and her colleagues have argued in the journal Science: “Add commercial hunting to the mix, and we have a recipe for rapid ecological extinction.”