Which one among the following is home to the endangered mountain gorillas in Africa?

Correct — D, Virunga Mountains. The mountain gorilla survives in just two places on Earth, and the larger of them is the Virunga chain of dormant volcanoes on the meeting point of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, protected as Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Volcanoes National Park and Virunga National Park respectively. The other population lives in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, also in Uganda, and is not among the options. What ties the animal to this particular range is habitat rather than altitude alone: the Virunga slopes carry Albertine Rift montane cloud forest between roughly 2,200 and 4,300 metres, dense, wet and full of the herbaceous growth the gorillas feed on. The species was assessed as Endangered by the IUCN in 2018, and about 1,063 individuals were counted as of 2019 — a small total, but one that decades of protection and regulated gorilla tourism have helped to lift.

• (a)Mount Kenya — An isolated volcano in central Kenya, several hundred kilometres east of the Albertine Rift and well outside the mountain gorilla's range, which is confined to the Virungas and Bwindi.
• (b)Mount Kilimanjaro — Africa's highest mountain, in northern Tanzania, and far outside the range of any gorilla. It is a stand-alone volcano rather than part of the Albertine Rift forest belt.
• (c)Ngorongoro Crater — A caldera in northern Tanzania famous for its dense population of grazing herds and their predators — lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and wildebeest. It is savanna and grassland, not montane cloud forest, and holds no gorillas.

The mountain gorilla is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla, confined to high-altitude forest along the Albertine Rift, the western arm of the East African Rift system. Its range is tiny — two forest blocks in three countries — which is why habitat loss, disease transmitted from humans and armed conflict in the region have made it one of the most closely watched conservation cases in the world, and why regulated gorilla tourism has become central to funding its protection.

The clean way to solve this item is to sort the four options by ecosystem instead of by fame. Gorillas need dense, wet montane forest with abundant ground vegetation. Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are isolated volcanoes rising out of dry savanna, and their forest belts are narrow and disconnected; the Ngorongoro Crater is open grassland grazed by huge herds. Only the Virunga chain sits inside a continuous belt of Albertine Rift cloud forest. Once you ask which of the four is a forest habitat rather than which is the most famous African landmark, the answer is immediate.

• Mountain gorillas survive in two populations: the Virunga Mountains across Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.
• In the Virungas they are protected in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (Uganda), Volcanoes National Park (Rwanda) and Virunga National Park (DR Congo).
• They inhabit Albertine Rift montane cloud forest at roughly 2,200 to 4,300 metres, on slopes of dormant volcanoes such as Karisimbi, Mikeno and Visoke.
• The IUCN assessed the mountain gorilla as Endangered in 2018; about 1,063 individuals were counted as of 2019.
• Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest mountain and lies in Tanzania; the Ngorongoro Crater, also in Tanzania, is a grassland caldera known for its grazing herds.

• Choosing Kilimanjaro because it is the best-known African mountain; fame is not habitat.
• Assuming Ngorongoro, with its extraordinary concentration of wildlife, must include every notable African species — it is grassland and has no gorillas.
• Confusing the mountain gorilla with the eastern lowland gorilla of the Congo forests, which is a different subspecies with a much larger range.

As a habitat-to-species question, or as a match list pairing endangered animals with the range or park in which they survive.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, one of the two homes of the mountain gorilla, lies in which one of the following countries?

  • (a)Kenya
  • (b)Uganda
  • (c)Tanzania
  • (d)Ethiopia

  Answer(b) Uganda — Bwindi holds one of the two surviving mountain gorilla populations, the other being in the Virunga Mountains.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Virunga Mountains lie on the borders of which one of the following groups of countries?

  • (a)Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda
  • (b)Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • (c)Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan
  • (d)Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique

  Answer(b) Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the chain is protected as three adjoining national parks, one in each country.