This is heavy loss for the species number just over 1 000.

Conservationists in the Mgahinga National Park in Uganda found the bodies of the four gorillas -a male and three females, one of them pregnant – with gross lesions that showed they died of electrocution by a lightning strike.

They were part of a group of 17 known as the Hirwa family. 

Mountain gorillas are spread in heavily protected areas in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration says it will take several weeks to confirm the post mortem finding.

The loss is particularly sad became of the potential of the females to contribute to the population of the endangered species.  

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