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Gorilla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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For other uses, see Gorilla (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Guerrilla.
"Blackback" and "Silverback" redirect here. For other uses, see Blackback
(disambiguation) and Silverback (disambiguation).
Gorillas[1]
Male gorilla in SF zoo.jpg
Western gorilla
(Gorilla gorilla)
Conservation status

Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Suborder: Haplorhini
Infraorder: Simiiformes
Family: Hominidae
Subfamily: Homininae
Tribe: Gorillini
Genus: Gorilla
Type species
Gorilla gorilla
Savage, 1847
Species
Gorilla gorilla
Gorilla beringei

Distibuci�n gorilla.png
Distribution of gorillas
Synonyms
Pseudogorilla Elliot, 1913
Gorillas are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the
forests 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 forests 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.[2]
Contents
1 Etymology
2 Evolution and classification
3 Physical characteristics
4 Distribution and habitat
4.1 Nesting
5 Food and foraging
6 Behaviour
6.1 Social structure
6.2 Competition
6.3 Reproduction and parenting
6.4 Communication
7 Lifespan
8 Intelligence
8.1 Tool use
9 Scientific study
9.1 Genome sequencing
10 Cultural references
11 Conservation status
12 See also
13 References
14 External 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.[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] The word was then later used as the species name,
though it is unknown whether what these ancient Carthaginians encountered were
truly gorillas, another species of ape or monkeys, or humans.[5]

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.[6] The name was derived from
Ancient Greek G?????a? (gorillai), meaning 'tribe of hairy women',[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[5][10] 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.[2]

Primatologists continue to explore the relationships between various gorilla

populations.[5] The species and subspecies listed here are the ones upon which most
scientists agree.[citation needed]

Taxonomy of genus Gorilla[1] Phylogeny of superfamily Hominoidea[11](Fig. 4)

Genus Gorilla
Western gorilla (G. gorilla)
Western lowland gorilla (G. g. gorilla)
Cross River gorilla (G. g. diehli)
Eastern gorilla (G. beringei)
Mountain gorilla (G. b. beringei)
Eastern lowland gorilla (G. b. graueri)
Hominoidea
?
?
?
?
humans (genus Homo)

?
?
chimpanzees (genus Pan)

?
?
?
gorillas (genus Gorilla)

?
?
?
orangutans (genus Pongo)

?
?
?
gibbons (family Hylobatidae)

?
?
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.[2] Population
genetics of the lowland gorillas suggest that the western and eastern lowland
populations diverged ~261 thousand years ago.[12]

Physical characteristics

Western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and Eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei)

Male gorilla skull

Gorillas move around by knuckle-walking, although they sometimes walk bipedally for
short distances while carrying food or in defensive situations,[13] and some
Mountain Gorillas use other parts of their hand to aid locomotion (studies of 77
Mountain Gorillas published in 2018 showed 61% only used knuckle walking, but the
remainder used knuckle walking plus other parts of their hand�fist walking in ways
that do not use the knuckles, using the backs of their hand, and using their
palms).[14] Wild male gorillas weigh 136 to 195 kg (300 to 430 lb), while adult
females usually weigh about half as much as adult males at 68�113 kg (150�250 lb).
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 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.[15][16][17][18]
[19] Groves (1970) calculates that average weight of the 47 wild adult male
gorillas is 143 kg, while Smith and Jungers(1997) found that the average weight of
the 19 wild adult male gorillas is 169 kg.[20] 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.[19] The heaviest gorilla
recorded was a 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) silverback shot in Ambam, Cameroon, which weighed
267 kg (589 lb).[19] Males in captivity are noted to be capable of reaching weights
up to 310 kg (683 lb).[19] 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.

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 forests 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.[21]

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.[22] Like humans, gorillas have
individual fingerprints.[23][24] Their eye colour is dark brown, framed by a black
ring around the iris.

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 forests to swamps. Eastern gorillas
inhabit montane and submontane forests between 650 and 4,000 m (2,130 and 13,120
ft) above sea level.[25] Mountain gorillas live in the montane forests at the
higher ends of the elevation range, while eastern lowland gorillas live in
submontane forests at the lower ends of the elevation range. In addition, eastern
lowland gorillas live in montane bamboo forests, as well as lowland forests ranging
from 600�3,308 m (1,969�10,853 ft) in elevation.[26] Western gorillas live in both
lowland swamp forests and montane forests, and elevations ranging from sea level to
1,600 m (5,200 ft).[25] Western lowland gorillas live in swamp and lowland forests
ranging up to 1,600 m (5,200 ft), and Cross River gorillas live in low-lying and
submontane forests 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.[27] Gorilla nests are distributed arbitrarily and use of tree species for
site and construction appears to be opportunistic.[28] Nest-building by great apes
is now considered to be not just animal architecture, but as an important instance
of tool use.[28]

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.[29] Mountain gorilla food is widely distributed and neither individuals nor
groups have to compete with one another. Their home ranges average 3�15 km2
(1.16�5.79 mi2), and their movements range around 500 m (0.31 mi) or less on an
average day.[29] Despite eating a few species in each habitat, mountain gorillas
have flexible diets and can live in a variety of habitats.[29]

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�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.[30] Western lowland gorillas depend on fruits more than the others
and they are more dispersed across their range.[31] 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).[31] Western lowland gorillas have
less access to terrestrial herbs, although they can access aquatic herbs in some
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",[32] although both mountain
and lowland gorillas have been observed drinking.

Behaviour
Social structure
File:Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and his family.webm
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.[33][34][35] However,
multiple-male troops also exist.[34] 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.[33]
[36] Mountain gorillas and western lowland gorillas also commonly transfer to
second new groups.[33]

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.[36][37] 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.[36][38] 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.[37]

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[35] 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.[39] Females form strong relationships with males to gain mating
opportunities and protection from predators and infanticidal outside males.[40]
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.[33]

Females may fight for social access to males and a male may intervene.[39] 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,[35] and occasionally they even engage in homosexual
interactions.[41] 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.[42]

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.[43] 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.[44]

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.[45] 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.[45] Males can be fertile
before reaching adulthood. Gorillas mate year round.[46]

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.
[47] In multiple-male groups, solicitation indicates female preference, but females
can be forced to mate with multiple males.[47] Males incite copulation by
approaching a female and displaying at her or touching her and giving a "train
grunt".[46] Recently, gorillas have been observed engaging in face-to-face sex, a
trait once considered unique to humans and bonobos.[48]

Mother gorilla with 10-day-old infant

Gorilla infants are vulnerable and dependent, thus mothers, their primary
caregivers, are important to their survival.[38] Male gorillas are not active in
caring for the young, but they do play a role in socialising them to other
youngsters.[49] The silverback has a largely supportive relationship with the
infants in his troop and shields them from aggression within the group.[49] Infants
remain in contact with their mothers for the first five months and mothers stay
near the silverback for protection.[49] Infants suckle at least once per hour and
sleep with their mothers in the same nest.[50]
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.[51] In
addition, nursing decreases to once every two hours.[50] 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.[49] After their
offspring are weaned, females begin to ovulate and soon become pregnant again.[49]
[50] The presence of play partners, including the silverback, minimizes conflicts
in weaning between mother and offspring.[51]

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.[52] 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.[42]

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.[53]

Lifespan
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2018)
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 January
17, 2017.[54]

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.[55] Some
researchers believe gorillas have spiritual feelings or religious sentiments.[2]
They have been shown to have cultures in different areas revolving around different
methods of food preparation, and will show individual colour preferences.[2]

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 Nouabal�-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.[56]

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.[57] 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. Great
apes are endowed with semiprecision grips, and have been able to use both simple
tools and even weapons, by improvising a club from a convenient fallen branch, for
example.

Scientific study
American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage obtained the first
specimens (the skull and other bones) during his time in Liberia.[6] 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,[58][59] where Troglodytes gorilla is described, now known as the western
gorilla. Other species of gorilla were described in the next few years.[5]

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.[60][61][62]

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.[63][64][65][66]

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.[67] 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."[68] 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.[69]

Cultural references
Main article: Gorillas in popular culture
Since coming to the attention of western society in the 1860s,[62] 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.
Pulp fiction, such as Tarzan and Conan the Barbarian, has featured gorillas as
physical opponents of the titular protagonists.

Conservation status
All species (and sub-species) of gorilla are listed as Critically Endangered on the
IUCN Red List.[70] Now, over 100,000 western lowland gorillas are thought to exist
in the wild, with 4,000 in zoos; 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.[2][70] 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.[71] 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".[72] 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.

See also
Bili ape
Gorilla suit
List of apes � notable individual apes
List of fictional apes
Monkey Day
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Taxon identifiers
Wikidata: Q36611 Wikispecies: Gorilla ADW: Gorilla EoL: 42003 EPPO: 1GORIG
Fossilworks: 97178 GBIF: 2436440 iNaturalist: 43579 IRMNG: 1435397 ITIS: 572837
MSW: 12100787 NBN: NHMSYS0000376721 NCBI: 9592
Authority control Edit this at Wikidata
GND: 4157923-9 LCCN: sh85055955 NDL: 00562550
Categories: IUCN Red List critically endangered speciesGorillasApesHerbivorous
mammalsPrimates of AfricaFauna of Central AfricaPrimate generaTaxa named by Isidore
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