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  about gorillas

"No one can look into a gorilla's eye - intelligent, gentle, vulnerable can remain unchanged, for the gap between ape and human vanishes, we know that the gorilla still lives within us."
George B Schaller (Oct 1995)
"Gentle Gorillas, Turbulent Times"


There are two distinct species of gorilla, separated geographically by the inner Congo Basin in Central Africa, to the south of the River Congo. Each species is divided in to two separate sub species. Eastern gorillas are divided in to the Eastern lowland gorilla and Mountain gorilla, and Western gorillas are divided into Western lowland gorillas and Cross River gorillas. All four sub-species are endangered, three of them critically so.

Gorillas, like humans, are great apes large, tailless primates that can use their hands to gather food and make nests. In fact, gorillas are very like us, 98% genetically like us to be exact. They live in family groups of between eight and 11 individuals, consisting of a dominant silverback male, three or four adult females and their offspring. The adults spend most of their day eating and resting, while the youngsters enjoy to climb and play. Their diet consists of mainly fruit, shoots and leaves and in the rainforest environment in which they live they are never too far away from their next meal.
 
gorilla facts
Name:

Gorilla gorilla gorilla 
Number Remaining: Fewer than 200,000
Where they live:

Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic
Characteristics: Western gorillas tend to have much redder hair on their head than their Eastern cousins, with male gorillas displaying striking chestnut coloured hair. The Western silverback’s silver saddle often extends down their thighs, giving them a more full-bodied silver look..
Status: Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List: A4cde ver 3.1)
Population Largely unknown
Main Threats: Logging, Ebola virus, hunting for bushmeat, environmental destruction.
 
Until recently, conservationists were less concerned about the long-term future of the western lowland gorilla as their vast forest home created a natural boundary between them and their human neighbours. But as the logging industry engulfs the forest, bringing roads, hunters and disease, the western lowland gorillas’ long-term future has been thrown into uncertainty.