Since Amy Vedder started hanging out with animals in Rwanda in 1978, the population of endangered mountain gorillas there has grown by at least 44 percent. That's a whopping 360 and counting.

        She credits an assortment of conservation efforts, including the Mountain Gorilla Project, which she launched with husband Bill Weber in 1979.

IF YOU GO

Who: Amy Vedder   What: Barrows Conversation Lecture Series, lecture and book signing   Sponsor: Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden   When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday   Where: Rockdale Temple, 8501 Ridge Road, Amberley Village   Tickets: $9; discounts for zoo members, volunteers and students   Books: $27.50   Information: (513) 559-7767

        “It's tremendously good news,” she says, considering the numbers. “We were all very concerned. That's a huge increase for a slowly reproducing, long-lived animal.”

        We can all breathe a “sigh of relief,” she allows, but the worrying isn't over. “A population of 360 can be very close to the threshhold of slipping into extinction,” she warns. “There is still a tremendous amount of work needed.”

        Ms. Vedder, 51, will speak Thursday at the Rockdale Temple in Amberley Village, the first of five speakers this year in the zoo's Barrows Conservation Lecture Series.

        She is vice president and director of the Living Landscapes Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Bronx Zoo, She holds a doctorate degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin.

        Her visit to Cincinnati is part of a promotional tour for her book, In the Kingdom of Gorillas — Fragile Species in a Dangerous Land (Simon & Schuster; $27.50). Mr. Weber, director, North America Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, is co-author.

        Ms. Vedder and Mr. Weber lived in Africa for four years and returned for periodic visits after their move to upstate New York, where they live today.

HOW TO HELP

If you want to help the mountain gorilla conservation effort, Amy Vedder suggests the following:   • Learn as much as you can.   • Get others interested.   • Join organizations committed to the cause, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society.   • Contribute time and money to make things happen.   For more information, go to www.wcs.org.

        Mountain gorillas were outnumbered by the more common lowland gorillas, the kind you see at the Cincinnati zoo, by about 300 to 1. Mountain gorillas are distinguished by shorter arms, less prominent jaws and flatter faces.

        “They are incredibly trusting and accepting (and) some of the most intelligent non-humans on earth,” says Ms. Vedder, .

        The biggest threat to mountain gorillas in the 250-square-mile Volcanoes National Park, in Rwanda, Uganda and the Congo, is civil war, she said in a telephone interview from her office.

        During periods of fighting, “There is such turmoil in government, security and in people's lives overall, that victims often flee to the forest and do whatever they need to survive.” That includes killing gorillas and eating gorilla meat.

        However, education efforts apparently have paid off, and gorilla poaching seems to have diminished.

        The objective of the Mountain Gorilla Project was to educate Rwandans and finance conservation through tourism to gorilla habitats.

        “We would have lost the gorillas without tourism as an economic alternative,” Ms. Vedder said.

        Still, not everyone has learned the real story behind the gorillas.

        “There's that old misconception that they are ferocious, dangerous beasts that will rip people apart,” Ms. Vedder said.

        “They are extremely powerful and strong, and they could injure a person.

        “But, if they are treated respectfully and carefully, they are considered gentle giants.”

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