Largest and most powerful of all living primates, the gorilla is a peaceful and sociable animal. It lives in the highlands and forests of Africa in small family groups.
Primates FAMILY
Pongidae
GENUS & SPECIES
Gorilla gorilla
Gorillas live in the wild only in the Zaire River basin. The two species--mountain and lawland--are separated by about 600 miles. Both are now recognized as being endangered.
FEATURES OF THE GORILLA
* The gorilla moves on all fours with its knuckles on the ground, but its weight is supported by its feet. * Strikingly human in appearance the hands are very broad and strong. The thumbs are smaller than the fingers, which helps the groilla to grp as it climbs trees or grabs foliage. * The gorilla's feet are characterized by the big toe. Unlike those of most apes, it is not widely separated from the other toes.
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KEY FACTS
SIZE Height: Males, 6 ft. Females, 5 ft. Weight : Males, up to 600 lb. Females, up to 200 lb.
BREEDING
Sexual maturity: Males, 7-8 years Females, 6-7 years.
Mating: No particular season. Gestation: 251-209 days. No of Young; One.
LIFESTYLE
Habit: Sociable.
Diet: Entirely vegetarian, mainly fruit, leaves, and juicy stems.
Lifespan: At least 30 years. .
RELATED SPECIES
Western, Mountain, and Eastern lowland gorillas of central Africa.
BREEDING
Gorillas mate year-round. The female produces one offspring about every fourth year. If her offspring gorilla dies i9n infancy, which happens 40-50 percent of the time, she will breed more frequently. A young gorilla remains with its parents three years after its birth.
Gorillas live in groups off ten to thirty females and their young, with one or more mature males, called silverbacks. Young adult males generally live alone, sometimes joining groups for short periods. Afterward, they resume their solitary existence. Occasionally they take females with them to mate and start their own groups.
A family group; the dominant male is known as a siliverback because the hair on his back turns gray with age.
SOCIAL HABITS
Each family group live within a farily small area. However, groups that occupy the same area coexist peacefully.
One way in which gorillas extablish and reinforce bonds is by social grooming. One gorilla will groom the other by combing through its fur with its fingers and teeth. In addition to the cleanliness it promotes, social grooming allows close contact and touch between the animals.
Each evening, gorillas build nests in trees in which to spend the night. Up to the age of three, the young share their mothers' nest. However, the nest-building instinct is so strong that they experiment with making their own nest at an early age.
Nest building is not a painstaking process. The gorilla simply pulls in any branches that it can reach and then squats on them to make a platform.
DIET
The gorilla is herbivorous, or plant-eating ( as opposed to camivorous, or meat-eating). It eats the fruit, leaves, and stems of a wide variety of plants that from the undergrowth of the forest floor. Bamboo shoots are a favorite. The food it eats, togeather with the dew it drinks off of leaves, provides all the moisture a gorilla needs.
GORILLAS & MAN
The gorilla's is easy-going nature has made it possible for humans to mingle with wild family groups, and thus considerable study has been conducted on the gorilla. Unfortunately, gorillas have also been widely hunted for food and sport.
The greatest risk to the gorilla, thought, comes from man's invasion of its habitats. The forests on which its survival depends are steadily being taken over as farmers and ranchers take adventage of the fertile land of the forest region.
WARNING DISPLAY
The unexpected appearance of a strange male in the group may cause the sliverback to mount an elaborate warning display. He hoots excitedly, building to an earsplitting roar at the intuder. Then, after having risen to his full height, tearing at twigs and branches, the gorilla beats his chest with the cupped palms of his hands. He may take a few steps toward the intruder, growling and gnashing his teeth.
If this does not deter the stranger, the silerback may be provoked to charge, waving his arms and screaming with rage. The charge usually stops short of actual contact; the silverback will thrust his face right up to the intruder's, and they will stand nose to nose, glaring at each other, until one or the other turns and stalks off.
DISTRIBUTION & CONSERVATION
The mountain gorilla is found only in the Vinunga Volcanoes region in the highlands of eastern Zaire. The lowlands gorilla lives in forest areas, stretching from the nothern bank of the Zaire River in the Ubangai River in southern Nigeria.
Both mountain and lowland gorillas are endangered. Fewer then 450 mountain gorillas exist in the wild.
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