The plight of the gorilla has been well known in biology/conservation circles (and to a lesser extent known to the general public - can someone please tell me how the sea turtle situation became so well publicized?) for decades, and the reports that have been coming out year after year have been increasingly bleak. In the 1980s, it was thought that there were maybe 100,000 gorillas across Africa, and this estimate had been slashed to half that in recent years. However, a team of scientists from the Congo and the Wildlife Conservation Society have just completed the most thorough census ever, and the news is good. One of the highlights of this new effort was expanding the search for gorillas into the swamps of central Africa - swamps that take days and days of trekking on foot to get to, over a hundred kilometers from the nearest road. And in these swamps, scientists found the highest density of gorillas ever reported, up to eight individuals per square kilometer. The new estimate for African gorillas is over 125,000. This makes me happy, although I fear it may weaken the motivation to establish more reserves for these awesome beasts. For now though, they remain listed as critically endangered, and that probably won’t change.