![]() ![]() The Western lowland gorilla is smaller than the Eastern gorilla, but is still gigantic. Only a handful of Eastern gorillas (about 20) exist in captivity, and there are no known captive mountain gorillas, so the Western is the gorilla you will see in zoos and exhibits. Because it lives in lower valleys and ranges closer to populations, it has been studied far more than the other species, and unfortunately, captured more often as well. The Western Lowland gorilla is the most populous and most recognizable of the gorillas. Gorillas are complex thinkers and tool builders, and most interestingly for their mass, and fierce appearance, are rather gentle and peaceful in their lifestyle, with little violence, free-forming family units, and long, rich childhoods spent learning from their elders. They can hold and manipulate things with their feet almost as easily as with their hands. They have not only opposable thumbs, but, like all the great apes except for human beings, opposable big toes as well. The gorilla has huge, flat molars in the rear of the jaw that grind down difficult foods. Their rotund bellies, which expand well out past the girth of the chest, are like large cauldrons that break down starchy foodstuffs like a furnace. With the largest males well over 500 pounds, the gorilla must spend many hours a day foraging and consuming about 50 pounds of vegetation. Gorillas have never been observed hunting, or eating any small game in the wild, but DNA testing of their feces suggests they may eat occasional small creatures - perhaps even monkeys. Only occasionally will gorillas eat insects, like ants and termites. They are probably exclusively herbivores who eat fruit, leaves, shoots, bulbs, roots and tree bark of nearly 100 different plant species. The gorilla is tremendously powerful and uses its strength to rip open tree trunks to retain the softer insides. Gorillas are true knuckle-walkers, and spend the most time of all the great apes walking on all fours. Many large males sleep on the ground and never enter the trees after they reach a certain size. The gorilla is a terrestrial animal which only spends time in trees during its youth, and while sleeping in a nest at night. All gorilla subspecies are critically endangered, and even with increasing conservation efforts, the likelihood of maintaining a population in the wild for some of these creatures is very slim. ![]()
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