GameStop Reddit traders invest money earned in gorilla conservation: Apes together strong!

Gorilla charity raises over $350,000 within a week due to initiative by Redditors

File Image: The intiative to donate for guerilla conservation started last week after a member of the group posted the adoption certificate (Getty Images)

Members of the Reddit page WallStreetBets, that gained fame after users skyrocketed the stagnant stock prices of the US-based video game retailer GameStop in January, have adopted a noble new mission: gorillas.

Redditors are using the slogan “apes together strong” to express solidarity with other investors pursuing the same goal — to use their earnings to adopt gorillas. And through the initiative, the members of the community have raised thousands of dollars for charities such as the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund that works for the welfare of the primates.

It all started when Reddit user “Pakistani_in_MURICA” adopted a baby gorilla named Urungano from the organisation on behalf of GameStop and posted an adoption certificate in WallStreetBets on Friday. Within hours, the group was full of posts from other users who were adopting the animals.

Since then, the organisation has raised over $350,000 (£250,000), reported BBC.

“It’s safe to say that the investor community on Reddit is not traditionally who we think of as our supporter base. But they definitely surprised and overwhelmed us over the weekend,” tweeted The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s, adding that the conservation effort had received more than 2,000 new donations in three days.

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The foundation further said that these funds will go into their field programmes where they track, monitor and study wild gorillas and their habitat.

Other charities too benefitted from the efforts of the community. Jared Taglialatela, the director of the Ape Cognition and Conservation Initiative in Des Moines, Iowa took to Twitter to thank WallStreetBets for their “amazing support.”

WallStreetBets had hit the headlines in January this year when a number of amateur investors bought the stocks of GameStop, thereby causing a huge spike in the stock market prices of the video game retailer. The store was not expected to turn a profit before 2023, but has seen its market value triple to $4.5 billion in January.