Largest Gorillas Now Critically Endangered, Poaching and Islamic Terrorists Hurt Conservation Efforts

In this Nov. 30, 2007 file photo, a gorilla looks on at Volcanoes National Park in Ruhengeri, Rwanda. The eastern gorilla has been listed as critically endangered, making four of the six great ape species only one step away from extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Endangered Species, released Sunday Sept. 4, 2016. AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File

The largest primate on Earth, the Eastern gorilla, has been marked critically endangered as hunting threatens the tiny population and Islamic terrorists complicate conservation.

There are fewer than 5,000 Eastern gorillas, a decline of about 70 percent over the past 20 years, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The IUCN, which maintains the Red List of Threatened  Species, announced the Eastern gorillas as critically endangered at the World Conservation Congress in Hawaii on Sept. 4, according to a press release.

About 300 gorillas are killed for meat each year in Congo, the home of the Eastern gorilla, according to an investigation by the Endangered Species International nonprofit in 2009, BBC reported.

Considering the apes only have babies every 3 or 4 years, even small-scale hunting can decimate the population.

A baby gorilla is held by an adult in the Virunga National Park, near the Uganda border in eastern Congo, in a file photo. AP Photo/Jerome Delay