How many western lowland gorilla are left?

The majority of western lowland gorillas are in Gabon and Congo. Their number in Gabon was estimated at between 28,000 and 42,000 in the early 1980s. Congo had a similar number in 1989–1990.

Cameroon held ca. 15,000 gorillas in 1998. Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni/Mbini) supported >3000 G. g. gorilla in 2011.

In 2009, the total number of western gorillas was estimated at >150,000. This is considerably more than earlier estimates by Harcourt (1996), Kemf & Wilson (1997), Butynski (2001) and Plumptre et al.(2003a) of 111,500, 111,000, 95,000 and 110,000 respectively.

The current number of gorillas is not known because (1) much of the range has never been surveyed, (2) much of the survey data are now outdated, and (3) commercial hunting and the Ebola virus have dramatically reduced numbers during the past two decades.