Gorillas

Location

Gorillas are found on the continent of Africa in the following countries:

• Western Gorillas — Nigeria, Cameroon, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo | View map
• Eastern Gorillas — Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda | View map

Habitat:

• Afrotropical

Physical Traits

• Adult gorilla males have silver hair on their backs and prominent skulls (saggital crests)
• Adult male gorillas are twice as large as adult female gorillas (sexual dimorphism)
• Gorilla's hair color ranges from brown to black
• Gorillas are the largest primate
• Mountain gorillas have longer hair than western gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas, adaptation for the cool conditions in higher elevations

Diets and Activities

• Mountain gorillas predominantly eat vegetation, while western gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas incorporate more fruit into their diet
• Wild gorillas have never been observed to hunt or eat meat
• Adult males build nests on the ground in which to rest and sleep, while females and infants usually build nests in the trees
• Although gorillas do spend time in trees, they spend most of their time on the ground

Social Behaviors

• Females always live in a social group
• Males spend most of their life in a social group, but there may be periods of time when they travel alone as they enter into adulthood
• Social groups may contain more than twenty individuals and generally include an adult male, several females and offspring
• However, social group compositions can vary—some have more than one adult male and some males live in bachelor groups for a certain period of time
• Like all great apes, including humans, the female reproductive cycle lasts approximately 30 days
• In the wild, adult females usually have one infant every four years
• A single infant is born after approximately 8 ½ months of gestation; infants are weaned at about three years of age

Population

Habitat destruction is the primary threat to the status of gorillas in the wild. The bushmeat trade (selling wild animals for food) is also a critical problem for all African great apes.