Appearing in 'Science' this week is a paper by Aylwyn Scally and colleagues, 'Mountain gorilla genomes reveal the impact of long-term population decline and inbreeding'. Genomes were sequenced and compared, showing that some sub-species have suffered population decline for thousands of years, which has led to further degeneration through in-breeding.
>> Read the article at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6231/242.short
>> Read Elizabeth Pennisi's news item http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/04/mountain-gorilla-genome-provides-hope-animal-s-future
Picture credit - Nyanjara near her mother [above] : David Cooper
Picture credit - Mountain gorilla family [home page] : Gorilla Doctors