Bushmeat
The gorilla is one of the four great apes, and is becoming extremely endangered. This great ape is located in two distinct locations, the mountains of east Africa and across forests of equatorial Africa. These two types of gorillas look very similar but are actually quite genetically different. One problem that is contributing to the possible extinction of the gorilla is the trading and consumption of bushmeat.
Bushmeat is the meat of any animal that is killed for food. Many people in the African countries that these gorillas are located in are killing gorillas at a very fast and unsustainable rate. This is detrimental to the survival of many gorilla populations due to how slowly the reproduce. Other animal populations, like deer and elk, are able to withstand the hunting of their kind because they reproduce so quickly.
Over the past few centuries the killing of gorillas for bushmeat has expanded from locals just killing these animals for a little extra food for their families to locals killing these animals and shipping the meat all over different countries. The selling of bushmeat has become commercial due to its high demand. Many Africans view gorillas’ meat as a delicacy. This meat has become so popular that it has become five times as expensive as normal beef.
The killing of gorillas has exponentially increased due to two reasons. First, it has increased due to new hunting methods. The invention of the gun has given the human hunter a huge advantage over the gorillas. Before the gun was invented, hunters would have to be very carful when attempting to hunt these massive beasts because of how dangerous and large they are. Now hunters are able to effectively shoot these animals from a safe and distant location. There are even more effective shotguns on the market today that have multi-shot cartridges. These guns are far more effective in killing these giant beasts in less shots. A second reason why the killing of gorillas has...