15/12/2013
Closely related to humans, mountain gorillas share many of the behavioral traits we possess, including hugging, playing, laughing, and throwing whatever is nearby when mad. Gorillas live in tight-knit, nomadic groups of about 10 animals, led and protected by a dominant male known as a “silverback.” These herbivores roam the forest in search of stems, leaves, and shoots. They eat more than 100 different types of plants and consume up to 40 pounds of plant matter a day, so their survival depends on the protection of the habitats where they live.
Female gorillas give birth only every three to five years, a relatively low birth rate that is a contributing factor to the small populations of this species. In a 30- to 40-year lifetime, a female mountain gorilla might have just three to eight offspring.
Mountain gorillas stand out from the three other gorilla subspecies because of their thick coats, which insulates them from the cold of their cloud forest homes. There are only two places on Earth where mountain gorillas exist: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Virunga Volcanoes in the equatorial African nations of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. WCS and its partners have censused the total population of this endangered subspecies of ape and found about 700 individuals.
Fast Facts
Scientific Name Gorilla beringei beringei
In 1959, WCS’s George Schaller was the first scientist to study mountain gorillas in the wild.
Mountain gorillas live in high-altitude forests that are often cloudy, misty, and cold.
Created in 1925, Virunga National Park was Africa’s first park and estalished specifically to protect mountain gorillas.
Challenges
Though gorillas have few natural predators, they are endangered due to the loss of habitat and forest clearing. They also fall victim to hunting for the wildlife trade, and through accidental snaring by poachers who are targeting antelopes for meat. Diseases that affect humans also pose a threat to apes and can spread quickly in such small populations.
All four gorilla subspecies are classified as “critically endangered,” except eastern lowland gorillas, which are endangered. Civil unrest and wars in the region where mountain gorillas live have further contributed to the species’ fight for survival, as displaced people settle in parks designed to protect wildlife and armed rebel groups hide in the forests. Gorilla populations in central and eastern Congo Basin have declined by more than 50 percent in recent decades, but the mountain gorilla is the only subspecies that has been growing in number.
