Cook Islands built much of its commemorative silver program in the 1990s on licensed wildlife themes, and this gorilla issue appeared the same year the International Gorilla Conservation Programme was intensifying cross-border coordination between Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — a moment when mountain gorilla population estimates had dropped below 650 individuals.
Cook Islands built much of its commemorative silver program in the 1990s on licensed wildlife themes, and this gorilla issue appeared the same year the International Gorilla Conservation Programme was intensifying cross-border coordination between Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — a moment when mountain gorilla population estimates had dropped below 650 individuals.