I have always been very attracted to the beautiful Gorilla, they are amazing creatures which have many similar features to man. Gorillas are big, gentle, shy apes that have their homes in the beautiful land that is Africa. Gorillas have been made to appear like monsters by the film industry in the past but are in actuality quiet, shy, peaceful vegetarians. These highly clever creatures are in danger of extinction due to the huge amount of destruction of their home grounds.
Gorillas that some reason have been placed in human cages have shown a huge deal of intelligence learning sign language from scientists and have been seen to create straightforward sentences and communicate with individuals. Only Gorillas in captivity that have been instructed have shown any ability with implements this doesn’t mean to say they haven’t used them in the wild just that they haven’t been observed.
As I mentioned earlier Gorillas are mostly gentle animals but they commune with each other using many complex sounds and gestures this is normally to teach the little gorillas the many skills required to survive and to communicate to other gorillas about social relationships, food, warning etc. Gorillas are mostly herbivores, though occasionally they will consume termites and ants. The moisture they receive from the plants they eat is enough to infrequently need a drink of water, which isn’t that surprising if you consider that a ordinary male gorilla eats about 50 pounds of grub each day.
The work to make sure that the gorillas habitats is not completely destroyed has been carried out by many people over the years and now because of the many Gorilla safaris that now draw money into the regions, specifically to see the beautiful gorilla, the need for protection for these magnificent animals is a lot more central. Many of these Safari businesses give businesses to go mountain gorilla tracking in the several parks in the area, but this is on a permit basis to ensure the gorillas aren’t disturbed too much. The habitat has allowed these companies to also offer wildlife safaris which ensures that awareness and funding keeps flowing into the areas.
At earlier stages of their development Gorillas would have lived in the trees but they have changed into living on the ground mainly living at the forests boundary and near clearings inside the forest. The average age of a wild gorilla is about 35 years, but gorillas that are placed in captivity have been seen to live till about 50.
By around 10 or 12 years of age gorillas are capable of mating, the pregnancy lasts around 8 to 9.5 months for the female gorilla and she will have about 3 babies in their existence. The newly born infant is on average half the weight of a human baby. Seeing a Gorilla mother raising her offspring is very much like that of a human mother with great gentleness and affection. Young gorillas once weaned create there own beds near to there mothers and will at some point leave there side at about 3 to 4 years of age.
