Gorilla — Koko dies · 203

The 1988 film helped mountain gorilla tourism and the Fossey myth. Western lowland numbers kept falling on a different map. Western lowland gorillas are the usual zoo gorilla. Captive groups do not replace Gabon and Congo forests. A mountain gorilla poached in 1977. Fossey used the death to fund anti-poaching -- a mountain, not western, story that still titles books.

Gorilla is one of 24 types in this animals atlas. The pages treat it as a full system -- history, anatomy, operating principles, culture, icons, future pressure and market shape -- not a ranking of a best species. Scores compare the gorilla with the other 23 types on speed, intelligence, range, resilience, cultural impact and ecological role. They are relative editorial marks. Resilience high means more secure; low means threatened. Western gorilla Critically Endangered; mountain gorilla (a different species, G. beringei) is Endangered after a guarded rebound. Resilience here follows the atlas type: CR.

Seven chapters follow: origins, systems, how the animal works, cultural life, named icons, what conservation can still change, and how tourism, conflict, fisheries and parks move money. Gorilla is not a single postcard animal. It is a set of populations, subspecies and human rules inside the wildlife family of this atlas.