Gorillas
Gorillas are the largest of the great apes. Although they’re over 10 times stronger than humans, they share 98.3% of their DNA with us—making the gorilla our closest cousin after chimpanzees and bonobos.
There are only two types of gorillas in the world, eastern and western, and they’re actually next-door neighbours, separated by just 560 miles of forest. These two types are divided into two subspecies: eastern lowland gorillas, eastern mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and western Cross River gorillas.
Gorillas are social animals and live in family groups called troops. The average troop size is around five to 10 gorillas but some can contain more than 50 individuals. The groups are polygamous, with one adult male gorilla, known as a silverback, leading the troop and mating with the female members. The young remain with the troop until they mature, at which point all of the males and around 60% of the females move to new troops to prevent inbreeding.
Gorillas share many biological and emotional similarities with humans. Female gorillas are fertile only a few days each month, experience a gestation period of eight to nine months, and typically give birth to one infant at a time. Because they care for each offspring for several years, they reproduce only every four to six years, making population recovery extremely slow when numbers drop.
Emotionally, gorillas display a wide range of expressions similar to those of humans. They laugh during play, grieve for lost companions, and communicate through diverse vocalizations such as grunts, barks, whines, and roars. Their intelligence is also notable. Gorillas use tools in creative ways—measuring water depth with sticks, scooping food with twigs, and even building bamboo ladders to help young gorillas climb.
Gorillas play a crucial ecological role. As they forage, they spread seeds through their feces, helping forests regenerate. Their strength enables them to pull apart dense vegetation like banana trees, which not only gives them access to food but also benefits other species by creating openings for sunlight and shelter.
Scientifically, eastern gorillas are known as Gorilla beringei and western gorillas as Gorilla gorilla. The word “gorilla” traces back nearly 2,500 years to the Carthaginian explorer Hanno, who described encountering “hairy people,” a term later adopted by American naturalist Thomas S. Savage in the 1840s.
Both gorilla species are critically endangered, with eastern gorillas having only around 2,600 mature individuals remaining. Major threats include habitat loss, agriculture, mining, poaching, human expansion, and disease.
Gorillas live in forested regions of central Africa. Eastern gorillas inhabit Rwanda, Uganda, and the Republic of the Congo, while western gorillas live in several West and Central African countries. They build nightly nests on the ground or in trees, often in overlapping home ranges rather than strict territories.
