Eastern Gorilla

Information and inspirational quotes about this iconic gentle giant[]

The more you learned about the dignity of the gorilla, the more you want to avoid people.

~ Dian Fossey, (Gorillas in the Mist).

(Please note:This quote needs to be rewritten in the both the lion king fandom and lion guard fandom, due to the community's lack of information on the primate).

No one loved gorillas more.

~ Nyiramachabelli.

Gorillas are almost altruistic in nature.

~ Dian Fossey.

The eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei) is a critically endangered species of the genus Gorilla and the largest living primate. At present, the species is subdivided into two subspecies, The eastern lowland gorilla or Grauer’s gorilla (G. b. graueri) and the mountain or virunga gorilla is more populous, at about 3,800 individuals. The eastern gorilla is a large hominid with a large head, broad chest, and long arms. It has a flat nose with large nostrils. The face, hands, feet and breast are bald. The fur is mainly black, but adult males have a silvery "saddle" on their back. When the gorilla gets older, the hair on the saddle of the back becomes white, much like the gray hair of elderly people. This is why the older males are called silverbacks. Males are much larger than females. A full-grown male eastern gorilla typically weighs 140–205.5 kg (309–453 lb) and stands 1.7 m (5.6 ft) upright and a female typically weighs 90–100 kg (200–220 lb) and stands 1.5 m (4.9 ft) tall. The tallest silverback recorded was a 1.95-metre (6.4 ft) individual shot in Alimbongo, northern Kivu in May 1938. The heaviest gorilla recorded was a 1.83-metre (6.0 ft) silverback shot in Ambam, Cameroon, which weighed 267 kilograms (589 lb), although the latter area is within the range of the western gorilla, far outside that of the eastern gorilla. Eastern gorillas are herbivorous, with a heavily foliage based diet, due to lack of available fruit in their habitats. They have smaller home ranges than western gorillas as foliage is more abundant than fruit. They are diurnal but the majority of foraging occurs in the morning and late afternoon. At night, they build nests by folding over vegetation, usually on the ground.

Habitat[]

Eastern gorillas live in East and Central Africa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The mountain gorilla lives in the famous Virunga Mastiff, a chain of forest-covered volcanic mountains in Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC, at elevations of 1.85 kilometers (1.1 miles) or higher while the eastern lowland gorillas inhabits the lowland tropical rainforests of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Lifespan[]

Eastern gorillas can live up to 35 years in the wild and over 40 years in captivity.

Vocalizations[]

The sounds that eastern gorillas make are grunts, screams, loud hoots, chest-beats, grumbles, barks and roars. Here's one video example:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_e2AlDL29M.

Diet[]

The diet of the eastern gorilla is herbivorous and insectivorous.

Natural predators[]

The main predators to the eastern gorilla are leopards, crocodiles and of course humans.

Animal strength[]

TBA.

Gallery[]

See Subspecies[]

Eastern Lowland Gorilla.

Mountain Gorilla.

Animal intelligence[]

Eastern gorillas (Both mountain and eastern lowland) are considered highly intelligent animals much like their western relatives along with other apes including the orangutan, gibbon, bonobo and chimpanzee.

Conservation status and population growth[]

The eastern lowland gorilla is listed as critically endangered and there are fewer than 6,800 individuals remaining in the Eastern Congo, while the mountain gorilla is listed as endangered (Since November 2018 and was originally critically endangered) and there's more than up to 1,063 individuals remaining in the Eastern Congo, Rwanda and Uganda.