🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Mountain gorillas inhabit elevations ranging roughly from 7,200 to over 13,000 feet.
Mountain gorillas are adapted to cool, high-altitude forests, but rising temperatures threaten to shift suitable vegetation zones upslope. As climate bands move higher, available habitat contracts against mountain summits. Unlike species with broad geographic ranges, mountain gorillas cannot migrate laterally across continents. Their world is confined to two mountainous regions. If warming reduces lower-elevation forest quality, upward compression may intensify competition. Eventually, there may be no higher refuge left. Climate geometry could corner an entire subspecies.
💥 Impact (click to read)
Temperature increases of even a few degrees can alter plant composition critical to gorilla diets. Shifts in rainfall patterns may reduce bamboo cycles or leaf moisture content. Habitat loss would not require deforestation alone; climate drift could accomplish similar contraction. Elevation becomes both sanctuary and trap.
Conservation strategies must integrate climate modeling alongside anti-poaching measures. Protecting current habitat may not suffice if ecological zones migrate. Assisted migration is not feasible for such specialized primates. Their survival depends on stabilizing global temperature trajectories. The mountains that once shielded them may become ceilings.
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