Friend a Gorilla: Endangered Mountain Gorillas seeking help through Social Networking

The Uganda Wildlife Authority launched a scheme to allow gorilla lovers short of time or money to visit the endangered apes to become virtual friends with them on the net. The "Friend a Gorilla" project was launched last month in Kampala and costs just one dollar a year for enthusiasts. The money generated is intended to help with mountain gorilla conservation. The use of technology has been employed to not only attract online users to visit the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in south-west  Uganda but also bring these gorillas into the sitting rooms of people around the globe, by positioning cameras in the wild. Through a system of cameras placed in this forest viewers will be able to watch the gorillas within their natural flora and fauna.

Any one can be a friend of a gorilla or follow specific gorillas living the forest on Facebook or Twitter for a minimum donation of $1. You will get updates on your gorilla friend(s), including photos, videos, and GPS coordinates, all of which are gathered by actual trackers that visit the gorillas daily.

Uganda is home to some 340 of the world's estimated 720 highly endangered mountain gorillas. The animals are found only in Bwindi and in the Virunga mountains on the border of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).