Protecting mountain gorilla during COVID-19, as the global pandemic keeps threatening man’s close relatives and the world’s most endangered species mountain gorillas in the whole World, mountain gorillas can only be found in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park both parks are located in western Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Virunga National Park of the Democratic Republic of Congo but among the above four national parks, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda is home to more than half the global population of mountain gorillas recorded in 2018 gorilla Census.

Bwindi forest is surrounded by highly populated communities which put pressure on this incredibly impenetrable forest at risk, now with this COVID-19 pandemic, it presents a big threat to mountain gorillas survival because gorillas are so closely related to people which means that this disease can be easily transmitted to mountain gorillas, because of this threat Rapid Response Facility (RRF) a UNESCO’s project that provides grants to support protected areas during crises has given Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park emergency support to safeguard the global remaining mountain gorilla populations from COVID-19.

 Why protecting mountain gorilla during COVID-19

Among the emergency support that Rapid Response Facility (RRF) has given to Uganda Wildlife Authority includes personal protective equipment for the rangers and other staff who interacting mountain gorillas on daily bases to enable them to protect all habituated gorilla families during COVID-19 and also foe easy implementation of COVID-safe measures enabling a swift response to any possible disease outbreak in any part of conservation area because there is an increased threat of illegal activities during VOVID-19  in some national parks which resulted in the loss of Rafiki silverback in Nkuringo Sector of Bwindi forest to poachers, this is an evidence of the pressure to some of the protected areas.

Amongst the tough measurers of protecting mountain gorillas during COVID-19 is to extend foot patrol efforts day and night to counter the increasing activities of poaching in the protected conservation areas

Worldwide Mountain Gorillas are on the top list of global conservation and Bwindi Impenetrable forest national park in Uganda it was crowned as natural World Heritage Site, also in 2018 after the gorilla Census, the status of Mountain Gorilla changed from Critically Endangered species to just Endangered species on the IUCN Red List of 2018. This was good news to people in conservation all-over the world but more efforts are need in protecting mountain gorilla during COVID-19 and from other unpredicted and serious threats and crises.