Seeing gorillas in the wild jungles is one of the most exciting African travel experiences that doesn't compare with anything else.
Everything about gorillas excites the curious mind, from the close relationship with us - humans, to the complex social structures and everything in between.
In this article, we'll look at some very interesting facts about gorillas and we hope you find learning about gorillas as exciting as we often do.
Interesting Facts About Gorillas
1. How Many Kinds Of Gorillas Exist?
There are 2 species of gorillas, the western gorillas and the eastern gorillas. Each of the species is divided into 2 subspecies, and thus there are 4 kinds of gorillas.
- Eastern gorillas (Eastern Lowland Gorillas, and Mountain Gorillas) live in DRC, Rwanda and Uganda.
- Western gorillas ( Western Lowland Gorillas, and Cross River Gorillas) live in DRC, Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic and Cameroon.
Besides the geography, an easier way to distinguish the 2 gorilla species is the amount of hair on their skin. Eastern gorillas have longer and thicker when compared to western gorillas.
2. How Big Are Gorillas?
Gorillas are the biggest primate and an adult male in the wild can weigh more than 220 kilograms.
While the sizes vary according to the species and gender, gorillas are the strongest primate.
3. What Do Gorillas Eat?
Gorillas survive on a vegetarian diet of mostly leaves, stems, shoots, pith, stems, barks, and fruits. The exact food varies depending on the location as well as the season, especially for fruits and young bamboo.
Gorillas can also eat ants and termites but this doesn't even make 4% of their diet and this serves as a source of sodium and other minerals.
Related article: What do gorillas eat?
4. Gorillas Can Bite Harder Than A Lion
For vegetarians, gorillas have a strong bite force and can bite harder than a lion. They have a bite force of 1300 PSI (pounds per square inch), which is more than 6 times that of a human.
Since they have to eat barks and piths as well as some bamboo, gorillas have physically adapted to have a strong bite.
5. What Do Gorillas Do All Day?
Gorillas spend their day either eating or resting. Gorillas can eat for about a quarter of their whole day and the rest is spent moving to look for food or resting.
Gorillas normally feed more during the mornings and evenings but can keep eating, like a sort of snacking throughout the day until it is time to fill up before the night.
When they are resting, the adults will sit and calmly watch the young gorillas play about with each other. Gorillas eat around 10% of their body weight, and adults eat 20 to 30 kilograms of vegetation every day.
6. Are Gorillas Good At Climbing?
Gorillas are very capable climbers but spend less time in the trees and more time on the ground. This is unlike our other cousins, the chimps and orangutans.
Because they are big and heavy, gorillas would risk falling and injury and thus do not climb very often. Infant and juvenile gorillas will be seen climbing trees more often because they are quite light and small but gorillas of all ages are good at climbing.
7. Are Gorillas Aggressive?
While gorillas in movies are sometimes portrayed as dangerous creatures, they are in fact very calm and gentle. There is a reason why most people who have been around them refer to gorillas as gentle giants.
On a gorilla trekking trip, you are usually accompanied by a ranger who ensures that you keep some social distance from the gorillas, but if they come towards you, the general rule is to stay calm and in one place.
Young gorillas are the ones who can at times try playing with visitors. Even looking into a gorilla's eyes, you will not feel threatened in any way but rather connected.
That being said, they are still wild animals and the rangers are usually armed to be able to disperse them in case of emergencies.
8. Are Gorillas Social?
Gorillas live in family groups called troops. The group is often made up of one silverback and several adult females along with their young ones.
Gorillas are very very social animals with strong group cohesion among all the family members.
9. How Do Gorillas Communicate?
Gorillas communicate with each other using various methods that are vocal and non-vocal. There are 25 recognized distinct vocalizations that gorillas use among which are grunts, barks, screams, roars, and belches.
Chest thumping is used to intimidate intruders.
10. How Do Gorillas Sleep?
Gorillas make fresh nests for daytime and night use. The sleeping nests are made of branches and shrubs and are only used one time.
Each gorilla except for the young infants builds its own sleeping nest. Infants share a sleeping nest with their mothers for protection and warmth.
Sometimes the sleeping nests are built in a tree but gorillas often build and sleep on the ground, unlike chimps and orangutans.
11. Every Group Has A Dominant Silverback
Every troop (gorilla family) has one dominant silverback that is responsible for protecting the group and looking for feeding spots. The dominant silverback has the mating rights to all the females and will fight off any invading silverback.
Some groups will have more than one silverback but their hierarchy will still exist and the leader of the troop will be respected by the other silverbacks. The roles of mating, protection and finding food remain to the dominant silverback.
12. Gorilla Pregnancy Is 8.5 Months
Gorillas give birth after a pregnancy of 8.5 months and often to 1 baby every 4 to 6 years. The mother takes care of the newborn infant for around 3 years until it is old enough to walk and feed on its own.
Infant gorillas grow at twice the rate of human babies.
13. Subadult Gorillas Are Cast Out Of The Family.
Gorillas become old enough to start mating at around 9 years. Females reach sexual maturity earlier than males at 9 years and males reach their sexual maturity at 10 years.
Both males and females are cast out of the family group when they are old enough to mate to prevent inbreeding with the females and to ensure that the dominant silverback retains his exclusive mating rights of all the females.
The young females go and join the family of another silverback, or start a new family with other young silverbacks that are also looking to establish a new group.
14. Gorillas Are Related To Humans
Gorillas are our closest animal cousins after chimpanzees and bonobos. We share around 98% of DNA and it is believed that we diverged from a common ancestor some 7 million years ago.
Besides the DNA evidence, the complex social structures of gorillas show a high level of intelligence.
15. Gorillas Have Unique Fingerprints
Gorillas, like humans, have unique fingerprints. This simply shows how closely related we are as animals.
While you won't be able to easily take a look at the fingerprints of various gorillas, gorillas have unique nose patterns that can be used for identification.
