The picture is taken from Google. I do not claim this photo as my property.
I believe most of us have heard of or read of the story on Tarzan where he was being raised in the jungle mainly by gorillas. If you don't know the story, please do go to a bookstore and pick up a copy of Tarzan, personally speaking I really enjoyed the story ever since I was a little girl.
Before we start, I just want to drop a note declaring the differences between a primate and a monkey. There are some ways that I know to tell a primate is they walk on their knuckles, this way they can hold some extra food in their hands, sometimes stand up straight and they tend to use tools for, example, eating and they don't have tails. While in the monkey family, they walk on their palms and always walk on all fours and don't use tools and they have long tails. Primates include the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan and even humans.
There are about 230 species of these mammals and they are mainly found in the warm parts of the world, but sadly, the tropical forests are disappearing fast due to a large demand of land for farming and living space for humans, so, that means there are quite a bit of primate species along with other animals are getting dangerously low in numbers or permanently extinct.
Now primates are mammals that are adapted for life in trees. They have long arms and legs, with flexible fingers and toes that they curl around branches for a good grip. Most of them have flat nails instead of claws.
Gorilla, or Gorilla Gorilla (I know, it's funny how sometimes scientific name can be quite amusing by repeating themselves twice.), can weigh up to 650 lb., or 300 kg, and size up to 6 ft., or 2 m, high, being that big makes them the biggest primates in the whole wide world.
They live in forests in a group up to 30 members, led by a large and strong male leader called the "Silverback". A silverback is an adult male gorilla, typically more than 12 years of age and named for the distinctive patch of silver hair on his back. A silverback gorilla has large canine teeth that come with maturity. Silverback is the center of all the attention, he makes 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.
The second in command is called the "Blackback", blackbacks are sexually mature males of up to 11 years of age and may serve as backup protection.
Males will slowly begin to leave their original troop when they are about 11 years old, traveling alone or with a group of other males for 2–5 years before being able to attract females to form a new group and start breeding. While infant gorillas normally stay with their mother for 3–4 years, silverbacks will care for weaned young orphans, though never to the extent of carrying the little gorillas. If challenged by a younger or even by an outsider male, a silverback will scream, beat his chest, break branches, bare his teeth, then charge forward. Sometimes a younger male in the group can take over leadership from an old male. If the leader is killed by disease, accident, fighting or poachers, the group will split up, as the animals disperse to look for a new protective male. Occasionally, a group may be taken over in its entirety by another male. There is a strong risk that the new male will kill the infants of the dead silverback.
They feed on the ground and in trees, gorillas are herbivores, that means they eat fruits, leaves, and shoots. Further, they are classified as folivores. Much like other animals that feed on plants and shoots, they sometimes ingest small insects as well (however, there has been video proof that gorillas do eat ants and termites much in the same way as chimpanzees.) Gorillas spend most of the day eating. Their large arrow shaped crest and long canines allow them to crush hard plants like bamboo. Lowland gorillas feed mainly on fruit while Mountain gorillas feed mostly on herbs, stems and roots. The group travels slowly during the day and they built nests with twigs during the late afternoon for the night.
A female's pregnancy period is is 8½ months. There are typically 3 to 4 years between births. Infants stay with their mothers for 3–4 years. Females mature at 10–12 years (earlier in captivity); males at 11–13 years. Lifespan is between 30–50 years, although there have been exceptions. For example the Dallas Zoo's Jenny lived to the age of 55. Recently, gorillas have been observed engaging in face-to-face sex, a trait that was once considered unique to humans.
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