![]() The scientific name for the eastern gorilla is Gorilla beringei, and the western gorilla’s is Gorilla gorilla. This behaviour also helps other species find food and shelter and lets in sunlight to help keep forests healthy. Their extreme strength is also useful for pulling apart vegetation, like banana trees, to access food. By consuming plants and fruits and then moving on to new locations, they help spread seeds with their faeces and allow vegetation to thrive. They also make ladders from bamboo to help their young climb trees.ĭue to their foraging habits, gorillas play a vital role in the health of forests. They’re also highly intelligent creatures and have been witnessed using a range of tools, from sticks to measure the depths of rivers, to twigs for scooping up food. Communication between gorillas involves a range of vocalisations, including grunts, barks, whimpers, whines, and chuckles, as well as hoots, roars, and screams. Like us, gorillas express a range of emotions, from laughing during play to grieving for the dead. Generally, females reproduce just once every four to six years, which makes it very difficult for gorillas to recover from a population decrease.Īnother similarity between gorillas and humans is emotional experience. Gorillas reproduce similarly to humans: the female is fertile for a couple of days every month, gestates for around eight to nine months, gives birth to (usually) one infant at a time, and nurtures them for multiple years before becoming pregnant again. The young remain with the troop until they mature, at which point all of the males and around 60% of the females move to new troops to prevent inbreeding. The groups are polygamous, with one adult male gorilla, known as a silverback, leading the troop and mating with the female members. The average troop size is around five to 10 gorillas but some can contain more than 50 individuals. Gorillas are social animals and live in family groups called troops. These two types are divided into two subspecies: eastern lowland gorillas, eastern mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and western Cross River gorillas. ![]() There are only two types of gorillas in the world, eastern and western, and they’re actually next-door neighbours, separated by just 560 miles of forest. Although they’re over 10 times stronger than humans, they share 98.3% of their DNA with us-making the gorilla our closest cousin after chimpanzees and bonobos. Some western lowland gorillas have been known to break open termite nests and feed on the larvae.Gorillas are the largest of the great apes. What do gorillas eat? Gorillas are mainly vegetarian, feeding on fruits, stems, and bamboo shoots, complemented with bark and invertebrates. In addition to intimidating intruders, these displays also act as communication between groups and are often used to maintain the dominance hierarchy within the group. Chest beating is often part of a ritual that may also include running sideways, tearing at vegetation, and slapping the ground. This aggressive display usually involves chest beating, vocal roars, and short rushes toward the intruder.Ĭhest beating is performed by both males and females. Unwanted visitors are usually met head on by the groups silverback, who will display aggressive dominant behaviors to fend off the intruders and protect his group. The gorilla is a peaceful and unaggressive species unless it is unduly disturbed. To communicate wild gorillas use a variety of calls including grunts, hoots, a barks, and roars (which is given by aggressive males). ![]() ![]() The gorilla is a quiet animal, and typically shy by nature. ![]()
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