The most recent census of mountain gorillas, published by the Greater Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration, puts the global population at approximately 1,063 individuals — the highest number ever recorded since systematic counts began. They live in two completely separated populations: the Virunga Massif (spanning Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, around 604 individuals) and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda with the adjacent Sarambwe Reserve in DRC (approximately 459 individuals). Ongoing 2026 monitoring suggests continued modest growth, with current estimates approaching 1,100.

For context: in 1981, fewer than 254 mountain gorillas existed. The species was considered critically endangered and very probably moving toward extinction. In 2018, the IUCN downgraded the status from “Critically Endangered” to “Endangered” — still endangered, but moving the right direction. They are the only one of the four great ape subspecies whose population trend has reversed.

What makes the recovery distinctive is not the number. It is the politics that produced it. The Greater Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration is a working three-government partnership between Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — three countries with complicated bilateral histories and ongoing security tensions. Joint patrols cross national borders. Veterinary protocols are shared. Census methodology is coordinated. Revenue from gorilla trekking (approximately $1,500 per permit, generating $50+ million per year) funds an estimated 80 percent of park operations and creates 10,000+ local jobs.

The Cross River gorillas of Cameroon and Nigeria, by contrast, have no equivalent transboundary structure. Their population continues to decline. The Amur leopard, split across Russia and China, has no equivalent. Neither does the Saola, split across Vietnam and Laos.

In conservation, what works is rarely glamorous. What worked here was three governments deciding to act in concert, sustained over four decades, against pressure from civil wars, refugee crises, and Ebola outbreaks that killed up to 90 percent of some gorilla groups in some years.

1,063 is a number worth celebrating. It is also a working model.

— Sources: Greater Virunga Trans-boundary Collaboration census data, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, IUCN, All About Wildlife