Rwanda Gorilla King Dies at 35

Ugandan animals' advocates embrace social networking

(NEWSER) - Not only can your online buddies be any age and in any location, they don't even have to be your species. Tech-savvy advocates of the endangered mountain gorilla are about to launch an umbrella site, friendagorilla.org, that will feature videos, social networking, and blogs—by park rangers, not gorillas. The first-of-its-kind effort is based at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, home to 370 animals, about half of the planet's remaining population of mountain gorillas. More»

10-year effort is the first to help dying species

(NEWSER) - Three African nations where the world's last 720 wild mountain gorillas live are finally working together to save the critically endangered animal, the Guardian reports. Until the 10-year plan was announced last week, mistrust and conflict had kept Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo from collaborating as another 10 apes were killed in the last 14 months. More»

Worker escapes to other gorillas' enclosure

(NEWSER) - A quick-thinking Buffalo zookeeper locked herself in with a female gorilla and her newborn after being attacked by an escaped 400-pound silverback male. The 24-year-old gorilla, which had escaped through an unsecured door, remained in an area closed to the public. It was tranquilized by a zoo worker using a blow dart before being dragged back to its enclosure by members of a SWAT team, reports the Buffalo News . More»

Western lowland gorilla DNA decoded by scientists

(NEWSER) - In decoding the DNA of a western lowland gorilla, scientists made a discovery that may surprise you: Humans and gorillas differ in just 1.75% of their DNA, making our genomes more similar than previously thought. That percentage actually drops to 1.37% when compared to chimpanzees, our closest living relatives—but 15% of the time, gorilla DNA is actually more like human DNA than chimp DNA is, the Los Angeles Times reports. That "tells us that there are individual genes for which, if you want to find the closest sequence to humans, you won't necessarily look at chimpanzees. In a few cases, you'll look at gorillas," says a geneticist. More»

Iceland, Rwanda, and Norway top the Independent's 'best' list

(NEWSER) - With International Women's Day coming up Thursday, should we weep or rejoice? While British women will likely face 14 more elections before women equal men in Parliament, women in Qatar are far more likely to attend university than men. That said, the Independent picked its best and worse nations for women to live:

1. Overall. Best: Iceland, where equality is high in health, education, politics, and employment. Worst: Yemen. Most dangerous: Afghanistan.