Gorilla

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For other uses, see Gorilla (disambiguation).

"Blackback" and "Silverback" redirect here. For other uses, see Blackback (disambiguation) and Silverback
(disambiguation).X
Not to be confused with Guerrilla.X
 Gorilla

Western gorilla
(Gorilla gorilla)

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Primates

Suborder: Haplorhini

Infraorder: Simiiformes

Family: Hominidae

Subfamily: Homininae

Tribe: Gorillini

Genus: Gorilla
I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1852

Type species

Troglodytes gorilla
 Savage, 1847

Species

Gorilla gorilla
Gorilla beringei

Distribution of gorillas

Synonyms

 Pseudogorilla Elliot, 1913
Gorillas are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forest of central Sub-Saharan Africa.
The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorillas and the western gorillas (both critically
endangered), and either four or five subspecies. They are the largest living primates. The DNA of gorillas is highly
similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, and they are the next closest living
relatives to humans after the chimpanzees and bonobos.
Gorillas' natural habitats cover tropical or subtropical forest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although their range covers a
small percentage of Sub-Saharan Africa, gorillas cover a wide range of elevations. The mountain gorilla inhabits
the Albertine Rift montane cloud forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, ranging in altitude from 2,200 to 4,300 metres
(7,200 to 14,100 ft). Lowland gorillas live in dense forests and lowland swamps and marshes as low as sea level,
with western lowland gorillas living in Central West African countries and eastern lowland gorillas living in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo near its border with Rwanda.[1]

Contents
 1Etymology
 2Evolution and classification
 3Physical characteristics
 4Distribution and habitat

 4.1Nesting

 5Food and foraging
 6Behaviour

 6.1Social structure
 6.2Competition
 6.3Reproduction and parenting
 6.4Communication

 7Intelligence

 7.1Tool use

 8Scientific study

 8.1Genome sequencing

 9Cultural references
 10Conservation status
 11See also
 12References
 13External links

Etymology
See also: Hanno the Navigator §  Gorillai

The word "gorilla" comes from the history of Hanno the Navigator, (c. 500 BC) a Carthaginian explorer on an
expedition on the west African coast to the area that later became Sierra Leone.[2][3] Members of the expedition
encountered "savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy, and whom our
interpreters called Gorillae".[4][5] It is unknown whether what the explorers encountered were what we now call
gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans.[6] Skins of gorillai women, brought back by Hanno, are
reputed to have been kept at Carthage until Rome destroyed the city 350 years later at the end of the Punic Wars,
146 BC.
The American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage and naturalist Jeffries Wyman first described
the western gorilla (they called it Troglodytes gorilla) in 1847 from specimens obtained in Liberia.[7] The name was
derived from Ancient Greek Γόριλλαι (gorillai) 'tribe of hairy women',[8] described by Hanno.

Evolution and classification

The closest relatives of gorillas are the other two Homininae genera, chimpanzees and humans, all of them having
diverged from a common ancestor about 7 million years ago.[9] Human gene sequences differ only 1.6% on average
from the sequences of corresponding gorilla genes, but there is further difference in how many copies each gene has.
[10]
 Until recently, gorillas were considered to be a single species, with three subspecies: the western lowland gorilla,
the eastern lowland gorilla and the mountain gorilla.[6][11] There is now agreement that there are two species, each
with two subspecies. More recently, a third subspecies has been claimed to exist in one of the species. The separate
species and subspecies developed from a single type of gorilla during the Ice Age, when their forest habitats shrank
and became isolated from each other.[1]
Primatologists continue to explore the relationships between various gorilla populations.[6] The species and
subspecies listed here are the ones upon which most scientists agree.[citation needed]

Taxonomy of genus Gorilla[12] Phylogeny of superfamily Hominoidea[13](Fig. 4)

The proposed third subspecies of Gorilla beringei, which has not yet received a trinomen, is the Bwindi population
of the mountain gorilla, sometimes called the Bwindi gorilla.
Some variations that distinguish the classifications of gorilla include varying density, size, hair colour, length,
culture, and facial widths.[1] Population genetics of the lowland gorillas suggest that the western and eastern lowland
populations diverged ~261 thousand years ago.[14]

Physical characteristics

Male gorilla skull

Gorillas move around by knuckle-walking, although they sometimes walk upright for short distances typically while
carrying food or in defensive situations.[15] A 2018 study investigating the hand posture of 77 mountain gorillas
at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (8% of the population) found that knuckle walking was done only 60% of the
time, and they also supported their weight on their fists, the backs of their hands/feet, and on their palms/soles (with
the digits flexed). Such a range of hand postures was previously thought to have been used by only orangutans.
 Studies of gorilla handedness have yielded varying results, with some arguing for no preference for either hand,
[16]

and others right-hand dominance for the general population.[17]

Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei)

Wild male gorillas weigh 136 to 227 kg (300 to 500 lb), while adult females weigh 68–113 kg (150–250 lb).[18]
 Adult males are 1.4 to 1.8 m (4 ft 7 in to 5 ft 11 in) tall, with an arm span that stretches from 2.3 to 2.6 m (7 ft 7 in
[19]

to 8 ft 6 in). Female gorillas are shorter at 1.25 to 1.5 m (4 ft 1 in to 4 ft 11 in), with smaller arm spans.[20][21][22]
 Groves (1970) calculated the average weight of 47 wild adult male gorillas at 143 kg, while Smith and Jungers
[23]

(1997) found the average weight of 19 wild adult male gorillas to be 170 kg.[24][25] Adult male gorillas are known as
silverbacks due to the characteristic silver hair on their backs reaching to the hips. The tallest gorilla recorded was a
1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) silverback with an arm span of 2.7 m (8 ft 10 in), a chest of 1.98 m (6 ft 6 in), and a weight of
219 kg (483 lb), shot in Alimbongo, northern Kivu in May 1938.[23] The heaviest gorilla recorded was a 1.83 m (6 ft
0 in) silverback shot in Ambam, Cameroon, which weighed 267 kg (589 lb).[23] Males in captivity can
be overweight and reach weights up to 310 kg (683 lb).[23]
The eastern gorilla is more darkly coloured than the western gorilla, with the mountain gorilla being the darkest of
all. The mountain gorilla also has the thickest hair. The western lowland gorilla can be brown or grayish with a
reddish forehead. In addition, gorillas that live in lowland forest are more slender and agile than the more bulky
mountain gorillas. The eastern gorilla also has a longer face and broader chest than the western gorilla. [26] Like
humans, gorillas have individual fingerprints.[27][28] Their eye colour is dark brown, framed by a black ring around the
iris. Gorilla facial structure is described as mandibular prognathism, that is, the mandible protrudes farther out than
the maxilla. Adult males also have a prominent sagittal crest.
Studies have shown gorilla blood is not reactive to anti-A and anti-B monoclonal antibodies, which would, in
humans, indicate type O blood. Due to novel sequences, though, it is different enough to not conform with the
human ABO blood group system, into which the other great apes fit.[29]
A gorilla's lifespan is normally between 35 and 40 years, although zoo gorillas may live for 50 years or more. Colo,
a female western gorilla at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, was the oldest known gorilla at 60 years of age when
she died on 17 January 2017.[30]

Distribution and habitat

Young gorilla climbing

Gorillas have a patchy distribution. The range of the two species is separated by the Congo River and its tributaries.
The western gorilla lives in west central Africa, while the eastern gorilla lives in east central Africa. Between the
species, and even within the species, gorillas live in a variety of habitats and elevations. Gorilla habitat ranges
from montane forest to swampland. Eastern gorillas inhabit montane and submontane forest between 650 and
4,000 m (2,130 and 13,120 ft) above sea level.[31] Mountain gorillas live in montane forest at the higher end of the
elevation range, while eastern lowland gorillas live in submontane forest at the lower end. In addition, eastern
lowland gorillas live in montane bamboo forest, as well as lowland forest ranging from 600–3,308 m (1,969–
10,853 ft) in elevation.[32] Western gorillas live in both lowland swamp forest and montane forest, at elevations
ranging from sea level to 1,600 m (5,200 ft).[31] Western lowland gorillas live in swamp and lowland forest ranging
up to 1,600 m (5,200 ft), and Cross River gorillas live in low-lying and submontane forest ranging from 150–
1,600 m (490–5,250 ft).

Nesting

Gorilla night nest constructed in a tree

Gorillas construct nests for daytime and night use. Nests tend to be simple aggregations of branches and leaves
about 2 to 5 ft (0.61 to 1.52 m) in diameter and are constructed by individuals. Gorillas, unlike chimpanzees or
orangutans, tend to sleep in nests on the ground. The young nest with their mothers, but construct nests after three
years of age, initially close to those of their mothers.[33] Gorilla nests are distributed arbitrarily and use of tree species
for site and construction appears to be opportunistic.[34] Nest-building by great apes is now considered to be not
just animal architecture, but as an important instance of tool use.[34]

Food and foraging

A gorilla's day is divided between rest periods and travel or feeding periods. Diets differ between and within species.
Mountain gorillas mostly eat foliage, such as leaves, stems, pith, and shoots, while fruit makes up a very small part
of their diets.[35] Mountain gorilla food is widely distributed and neither individuals nor groups have to compete with
one another. Their home ranges vary from 3 to 15 km2 (1.16 to 5.79 mi2), and their movements range around 500 m
(0.31 mi) or less on an average day.[35] Despite eating a few species in each habitat, mountain gorillas have flexible
diets and can live in a variety of habitats.[35]

Gorillas moving in habitat

Gorilla foraging
Eastern lowland gorillas have more diverse diets, which vary seasonally. Leaves and pith are commonly eaten, but
fruits can make up as much as 25% of their diets. Since fruit is less available, lowland gorillas must travel farther
each day, and their home ranges vary from 2.7 to 6.5 km2 (1.04 to 2.51 mi2), with day ranges 154–2,280 m (0.096–
1.417 mi). Eastern lowland gorillas will also eat insects, preferably ants. [36] Western lowland gorillas depend on fruits
more than the others and they are more dispersed across their range.[37] They travel even farther than the other gorilla
subspecies, at 1,105 m (0.687 mi) per day on average, and have larger home ranges of 7–14 km2 (2.70–5.41 mi2).
 Western lowland gorillas have less access to terrestrial herbs, although they can access aquatic herbs in some
[37]

areas. Termites and ants are also eaten.

Gorillas rarely drink water "because they consume succulent vegetation that is comprised of almost half water as
well as morning dew",[38] although both mountain and lowland gorillas have been observed drinking.

Behaviour
Social structure

Mountain gorilla family

Gorillas live in groups called troops. Troops tend to be made of one adult male or silverback, multiple adult females
and their offspring.[39][40][41] However, multiple-male troops also exist.[40] A silverback is typically more than 12 years
of age, and is named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back, which comes with maturity. Silverbacks also
have large canine teeth that also come with maturity. Both males and females tend to emigrate from their natal
groups. For mountain gorillas, females disperse from their natal troops more than males. [39][42] Mountain gorillas and
western lowland gorillas also commonly transfer to second new groups.[39]
Mature males also tend to leave their groups and establish their own troops by attracting emigrating females.
However, male mountain gorillas sometimes stay in their natal troops and become subordinate to the silverback. If
the silverback dies, these males may be able to become dominant or mate with the females. This behaviour has not
been observed in eastern lowland gorillas. In a single male group, when the silverback dies, the females and their
offspring disperse and find a new troop.[42][43] Without a silverback to protect them, the infants will likely fall victim
to infanticide. Joining a new group is likely to be a tactic against this.[42][44] However, while gorilla troops usually
disband after the silverback dies, female eastern lowlands gorillas and their offspring have been recorded staying
together until a new silverback transfers into the group. This likely serves as protection from leopards. [43]

Silverback gorilla
The silverback is the center of the troop's attention, making all the decisions, mediating conflicts, determining the
movements of the group, leading the others to feeding sites, and taking responsibility for the safety and well-being
of the troop. Younger males subordinate to the silverback, known as blackbacks, may serve as backup protection.
Blackbacks are aged between 8 and 12 years[41] and lack the silver back hair. The bond that a silverback has with his
females forms the core of gorilla social life. Bonds between them are maintained by grooming and staying close
together.[45] Females form strong relationships with males to gain mating opportunities and protection from predators
and infanticidal outside males.[46] However, aggressive behaviours between males and females do occur, but rarely
lead to serious injury. Relationships between females may vary. Maternally related females in a troop tend to be
friendly towards each other and associate closely. Otherwise, females have few friendly encounters and commonly
act aggressively towards each other.[39]
Females may fight for social access to males and a male may intervene.[45] Male gorillas have weak social bonds,
particularly in multiple-male groups with apparent dominance hierarchies and strong competition for mates. Males
in all-male groups, though, tend to have friendly interactions and socialise through play, grooming, and staying
together,[41] and occasionally they even engage in homosexual interactions.[47] Severe aggression is rare in stable
groups, but when two mountain gorilla groups meet the two silverbacks can sometimes engage in a fight to the
death, using their canines to cause deep, gaping injuries.[48]

Competition
One possible predator of gorillas is the leopard. Gorilla remains have been found in leopard scat, but this may be the
result of scavenging.[49] When the group is attacked by humans, leopards, or other gorillas, an individual silverback
will protect the group, even at the cost of his own life.[50]

Reproduction and parenting

Young gorilla riding on mother

Females mature at 10–12 years (earlier in captivity), and males at 11–13 years. A female's first ovulatory cycle
occurs when she is six years of age, and is followed by a two-year period of adolescent infertility.[51] The estrous
cycle lasts 30–33 days, with outward ovulation signs subtle compared to those of chimpanzees. The gestation period
lasts 8.5 months. Female mountain gorillas first give birth at 10 years of age and have four-year interbirth intervals.
 Males can be fertile before reaching adulthood. Gorillas mate year round.[52]
[51]

Females will purse their lips and slowly approach a male while making eye contact. This serves to urge the male to
mount her. If the male does not respond, then she will try to attract his attention by reaching towards him or slapping
the ground.[53] In multiple-male groups, solicitation indicates female preference, but females can be forced to mate
with multiple males.[53] Males incite copulation by approaching a female and displaying at her or touching her and
giving a "train grunt".[52] Recently, gorillas have been observed engaging in face-to-face sex, a trait once considered
unique to humans and bonobos.[54]

Mother gorilla with 10-day-old infant

Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependent, thus mothers, their primary caregivers, are important to their survival.
 Male gorillas are not active in caring for the young, but they do play a role in socialising them to other
[44]

youngsters.[55] The silverback has a largely supportive relationship with the infants in his troop and shields them from
aggression within the group.[55] Infants remain in contact with their mothers for the first five months and mothers stay
near the silverback for protection.[55] Infants suckle at least once per hour and sleep with their mothers in the same
nest.[56]
Infants begin to break contact with their mothers after five months, but only for a brief period each time. By 12
months old, infants move up to five meters (16 feet) from their mothers. At around 18–21 months, the distance
between mother and offspring increases and they regularly spend time away from each other.[57] In addition, nursing
decreases to once every two hours.[56] Infants spend only half of their time with their mothers by 30 months. They
enter their juvenile period at their third year, and this lasts until their sixth year. At this time, gorillas are weaned and
they sleep in a separate nest from their mothers.[55] After their offspring are weaned, females begin to ovulate and
soon become pregnant again.[55][56] The presence of play partners, including the silverback, minimizes conflicts in
weaning between mother and offspring.[57]

Communication
"Gorilla communication" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Guerrilla communication.

Twenty-five distinct vocalisations are recognised, many of which are used primarily for group communication
within dense vegetation. Sounds classified as grunts and barks are heard most frequently while traveling, and
indicate the whereabouts of individual group members.[58] They may also be used during social interactions when
discipline is required. Screams and roars signal alarm or warning, and are produced most often by silverbacks. Deep,
rumbling belches suggest contentment and are heard frequently during feeding and resting periods. They are the
most common form of intragroup communication.[48]
For this reason, conflicts are most often resolved by displays and other threat behaviours that are intended to
intimidate without becoming physical. The ritualized charge display is unique to gorillas. The entire sequence has
nine steps: (1) progressively quickening hooting, (2) symbolic feeding, (3) rising bipedally, (4) throwing vegetation,
(5) chest-beating with cupped hands, (6) one leg kick, (7) sideways running, two-legged to four-legged, (8) slapping
and tearing vegetation, and (9) thumping the ground with palms to end display.[59]

Intelligence
See also: Animal language

A female gorilla exhibiting tool use by using a tree trunk as a support whilst fishing herbs
Gorillas are considered highly intelligent. A few individuals in captivity, such as Koko, have been taught a subset
of sign language. Like the other great apes, gorillas can laugh, grieve, have "rich emotional lives", develop strong
family bonds, make and use tools, and think about the past and future.[60] Some researchers believe gorillas have
spiritual feelings or religious sentiments.[1] They have been shown to have cultures in different areas revolving
around different methods of food preparation, and will show individual colour preferences.[1]

Tool use
The following observations were made by a team led by Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society in
September 2005. Gorillas are now known to use tools in the wild. A female gorilla in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National
Park in the Republic of Congo was recorded using a stick as if to gauge the depth of water whilst crossing a swamp.
A second female was seen using a tree stump as a bridge and also as a support whilst fishing in the swamp. This
means all of the great apes are now known to use tools.[61]
In September 2005, a two-and-a-half-year-old gorilla in the Republic of Congo was discovered using rocks to smash
open palm nuts inside a game sanctuary.[62] While this was the first such observation for a gorilla, over 40 years
previously, chimpanzees had been seen using tools in the wild 'fishing' for termites. Nonhuman great apes are
endowed with semiprecision grips, and have been able to use both simple tools and even weapons, such as
improvising a club from a convenient fallen branch.

Scientific study
American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage obtained the first specimens (the skull and other
bones) during his time in Liberia.[7] The first scientific description of gorillas dates back to an article by Savage and
the naturalist Jeffries Wyman in 1847 in Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History,[63]
 where Troglodytes gorilla is described, now known as the western gorilla. Other species of gorilla were described
[64]

in the next few years.[6]

Drawing of French explorer Paul Du Chaillu at close quarters with a gorilla

The explorer Paul Du Chaillu was the first westerner to see a live gorilla during his travel through western equatorial
Africa from 1856 to 1859. He brought dead specimens to the UK in 1861.[65][66][67]
The first systematic study was not conducted until the 1920s, when Carl Akeley of the American Museum of Natural
History traveled to Africa to hunt for an animal to be shot and stuffed. On his first trip, he was accompanied by his
friends Mary Bradley, a mystery writer, her husband, and their young daughter Alice, who would later write science
fiction under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. After their trip, Mary Bradley wrote On the Gorilla Trail. She later
became an advocate for the conservation of gorillas, and wrote several more books (mainly for children). In the late
1920s and early 1930s, Robert Yerkes and his wife Ava helped further the study of gorillas when they sent Harold
Bigham to Africa. Yerkes also wrote a book in 1929 about the great apes.
After World War II, George Schaller was one of the first researchers to go into the field and study primates. In 1959,
he conducted a systematic study of the mountain gorilla in the wild and published his work. Years later, at the behest
of Louis Leakey and the National Geographic, Dian Fossey conducted a much longer and more comprehensive
study of the mountain gorilla. When she published her work, many misconceptions and myths about gorillas were
finally disproved, including the myth that gorillas are violent.
Western lowland gorillas (G. g. gorilla) are believed to be one of the zoonotic origins of HIV/AIDS. The
SIVgor Simian immunodeficiency virus that infects them is similar to a certain strain of HIV-1.[68][69][70][71]

Genome sequencing
The gorilla became the next-to-last great ape genus to have its genome sequenced. The first gorilla genome was
generated with short read and Sanger sequencing using DNA from a female western lowland gorilla named Kamilah.
This gave scientists further insight into the evolution and origin of humans. Despite the chimpanzees being the
closest extant relatives of humans, 15% of the human genome was found to be more like that of the gorilla.[72] In
addition, 30% of the gorilla genome "is closer to human or chimpanzee than the latter are to each other; this is rarer
around coding genes, indicating pervasive selection throughout great ape evolution, and has functional consequences
in gene expression."[73] Analysis of the gorilla genome has cast doubt on the idea that the rapid evolution of hearing
genes gave rise to language in humans, as it also occurred in gorillas.[74]

Cultural references
Main article: Gorillas in popular culture

Since coming to the attention of western society in the 1860s,[67] gorillas have been a recurring element of many
aspects of popular culture and media. For example, gorillas have featured prominently in monstrous fantasy films
such as King Kong. Additionally, pulp fiction stories such as Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian have featured gorillas
as physical opponents of the titular protagonists.

Conservation status
 Eastern lowland gorilla in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo
All species (and subspecies) of gorilla are listed as endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.[75]
 Now, over 100,000 western lowland gorillas are thought to exist in the wild, with 4,000 in zoos, thanks to
[76]

conservation; eastern lowland gorillas have a population of under 5,000 in the wild and 24 in zoos. Mountain
gorillas are the most severely endangered, with an estimated population of about 880 left in the wild and none in
zoos.[1][75] Threats to gorilla survival include habitat destruction and poaching for the bushmeat trade. In 2004, a
population of several hundred gorillas in the Odzala National Park, Republic of Congo was essentially wiped out by
the Ebola virus.[77] A 2006 study published in Science concluded more than 5,000 gorillas may have died in recent
outbreaks of the Ebola virus in central Africa. The researchers indicated in conjunction with commercial hunting of
these apes, the virus creates "a recipe for rapid ecological extinction".[78] Conservation efforts include the Great Apes
Survival Project, a partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme and the UNESCO, and also an
international treaty, the Agreement on the Conservation of Gorillas and Their Habitats, concluded under UNEP-
administered Convention on Migratory Species. The Gorilla Agreement is the first legally binding instrument
exclusively targeting gorilla conservation; it came into effect on 1 June 2008.