The western lowland gorilla is one of many new additions to the World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s 2007 Red List of Threatened Species, which was made public today.
Since 2006, the annual assessment of the planet's imperiled wildlife has grown by more than a thousand species and now totals 41,415.
Many great apes end up on the list, as their habitat is continually under threat from human activities. (Read about the charcoal trade and Congo's mountain gorillas.)
Western lowland gorilla populations in central Africa have collapsed due to the commercial bushmeat trade and the Ebola virus. And in Indonesia, orangutans are critically endangered because of forest logging and clearing land for palm oil plantations.
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