Gorillas
My favorite animals are gorillas. I especially love mountain gorillas, but also every other kind of monkeys. I’m really obsessed; I have 35 stuffed monkeys, a lot of books, and much more.
Here you can find important facts about these animals.
Gorillas are mammals, and are also apes. Humans are close relatives of the apes, although scientists believe they are not descended from them. Some people think that apes and humans shared a common ancestor that lived millions of years ago. There are three groups of gorillas in Africa, mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, and western lowland gorillas. Western lowland gorillas live in dense rain forests in Cameroon, Gabon, and other West African countries. The Eastern lowland gorillas live in the forests of Zaire. Mountain gorillas live in the dense forests, in a much higher altitudes, in Zaire, Rwanda, and Uganda.
My favorite kind of gorilla is the Mountain Gorilla. Mountain Gorillas have thicker, and longer hair than their relatives, because of the climate they live in.
The home of the Mountain Gorillas is a land of mist and rain, under giant trees, and tangled green plants. It is located in the Virunga Mountains of central Africa. The Virunga Mountains were formed by the eruption of volcanoes. Now, most volcanoes are extinct. It is the slopes of these dead volcanoes where mountain gorillas live their lives. Although the mountains are near the Equator, because of its high altitudes the forests are not hot. Most of the Virunga mountain range is located in Zaire, and Rwanda. Each country has its nation parks to protect these highly endangered animals.
Gorillas live in groups. A group can contain as few members as 2, or as much as 30 gorillas. It is easy to recognize a full-grown adult gorilla. A full-grown male can be as tall as 1.8 meters (6 feet), if they stand upright. They weight up to 180 kilograms (400 pounds) and they have very long arms. The smaller gorillas in the group are the females. They weight about 90 kilograms (200 pounds) and are only half as tall as male gorillas.
A gorilla group is a kind of family, even though the members are not all members are related to each other. The male leader, the silverback, plays a very important role of daily life in a gorilla group. They are called silverbacks, because when a male gorillas is about 11, or 12 years old silver hair begins growing on its back. The silverback leads the groups when looking for food, keeps order among other gorillas, and protects his family from danger. Most importantly the silverback is the only male the females can mate with, and produce young.
Gorillas sleep about 13 hours each night and rest for several hours at midday. They build new sleeping nests every night by bending nearby plants into a springy platform, usually on the ground or in low trees. When not resting, they spend most of their time looking for food and eating it. They eat mostly plant foods: leaves, shoots, fruit, bulbs, bark, vines and nettles. They also eat ants, termites, grubs, worms and insect larvae.
Lastly here are some pictures of these incredibly cute, and intelligent animals:
Isn’t he just adorable?
Just like humans… The females take care of the babies…
