Ebola virus has wiped out one third of gorillas and chimps since 1990s

The Ebola virus claimed more than 8000 human victims in 2014 when it ravaged West Africa — but the disease has taken another huge toll that hasn't made headlines.

Since the 1990s, one third of the world's gorillas and chimpanzees have been killed by Ebola, according to an eye-opening report in The Conversation.

The report, by University of Sheffield researcher Meera Inglis, reveals that Ebola is even more deadly for great apes than it is for humans.

While around 50 percent of humans who contract the Ebola virus die from it, mortality rates are approximately 95 percent for gorillas and 77 percent for chimpanzees.

A 1995 Ebola outbreak is reported to have killed more than 90 percent of the gorillas in Minkébé Park in northern Gabon, while a 2002-2003 outbreak of an Ebola strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed an estimated 5000 Western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla).

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According to Inglis, a safe and effective vaccine for gorillas and chimps exists, but its rollout has been hindered by European restrictions on great ape medical research because of their "cognitive similarity" to humans.

Many gorilla species are under threat, according to the World Wildlife Fund: the Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla — yes, that really is its scientific name) is critically endangered, as is the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), one of the world's most endangered animals.

Great apes are also under threat from deforestation, illegal trade in bushmeat, and other infectious viruses in addition to Ebola.

Dogs are also believed to become infected with Ebola, though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are no known cases of them developing the disease or passing it to humans.

Excalibur, the mixed-breed dog of Spanish Ebola-infected nurse Teresa Romero Ramos, was nevertheless put down in October over fears it had contracted the virus, while US Ebola survivor Nina Pham was reunited with her King Charles spaniel Bentley in November after both were cleared of the disease.

Other animals prone to infection include pigs, forest antelopes and porcupines.

According to the World Health Organisation, it's believed that Ebola was first transmitted to humans from fruit bats.

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