Western Lowland Gorilla

Gorilla Facts
• We’re the largest of the great apes.
• We’re usually gentle, becoming aggressive only to defend our families. Don’t be fooled by our grumpy faces!
• An adult male (that’s me!) can grow to six feet and 400-600 lbs! Wow! Females are about four and a half feet and about 200 lbs.
• Our arms are longer than our legs.
• We groom by running our fingers through our hair and picking out little icky bits that have gotten caught there. But I don’t groom anyone…my lady friends do all the grooming for me and the kids.
• We can live to 55 years.
• I’m a lowland gorilla, but there are also mountain gorillas, which are the ones Dian Fossey studied. I guess she thought we weren’t as cool as them.
• We live in troops. Sounds militaristic, doesn’t it? But it’s not. There can be up to thirty of us in a troop—a dominant male, a few younger males, some females, and the young.
• The strongest silverback (which is a mature male gorilla, like me!) is the leader of the troop. He protects the troop and decides where to sleep and looks for food. Talk about patriarchy…it’s awesome!
• Also, the dominant silverback mates with any female in the troop. Heck yeah.
• Anyone who challenges the dominant silverback will probably meet with physical and vocal displays of aggression. That’s right, don’t mess with me.
• At the first sign of danger, the troop silently moves away. (We’re not cowards, we’re just not stupid.)
• We spend most of our time on the ground.
• We build nests out of leaves to sleep in.
• We’re vegetarians—we eat roots, shoots, wild celery, fruit, and tree bark. Yum!
• We don’t drink much water, since we get enough from the things we eat.
• Our senses are close to humans, and we have opposable thumbs!
• We walk on our knuckles.
• We travel 300-6,000 feet per day, finding food as we go.
• The noises we make include: belching (contentment), pig grunt (discipline) hoot-bark (curiosity or alarm).
• Chest and thigh beating can mean aggression or play. (Trust me, it’s fun! You should try it sometime.
• We live in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but no one’s really sure how many of us are left. Sadly, we’re endangered.
• We don’t have any natural enemies except for humans.

Information from:
Zoo signs
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/lowland-gorilla.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/apes/gorilla/
http://www.koko.org/about/facts.html
Pictures from:
http://www.naturalsciences.be/science/projects/gorilla/aboutgorilla/taxo/external/pictures/aboutgorilla/legorille_lowland%20gorilla%20res.jpg
http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlegacy/blog/uploaded_images/Gorilla_Bristol_zoo_western_lowland_standing_knuckles-725248.jpg