Great Apes

Range:

Southeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Rio Muni, Gabon, Congo in Angola

Habitat:

Floor of mountains and secondary forests with damp, hot climate.

Characteristics:

While the gorilla is the largest of the apes, the western lowland gorilla is the smallest of the three gorilla subspecies. Females are only half the weight of the males. Coat is black, brown or gray, with the adult male having a “silver back” saddle reaching to the thighs. This saddle is less defined than in the eastern lowland gorilla. Gorillas have powerful canines, especially in the males and the bulk of their body weight is carried on the legs.

Behavior:

Gorillas moving every one to three days, depending upon food supply. Males nest on the ground, females and young nest on a platform built less than ten feet from the ground. Gorilla troops consist of 5 to 30, with a single dominant male (silver-back), one or two black-backed subadult males, about six adult females, and up to ten babies and juveniles. The troops are well integrated and peaceful and only the silverback mates with the females. Well-known is the silverbacks display. He will beat his chest, making hoots and growls, put a leaf between his lips (symbolic feeding), stand, hunch shoulders, beat his chest and charge bipedally, finally dropping to all fours.

Reproduction:

Gorilla gestation is 258 days with a single infant being born. There is no fixed birth season, and infants have a small white tuft on the rump until they are four years old. Backs begin to silver in males at about 11 to 13 years. Females breed about every 3 to 5 years.

Interesting Facts:

They may look fierce, but Gorillas are “gentle giants,” eating only vegetation and only becoming aggressive when threatened.

All training at Utah’s Hogle Zoo is done through positive reinforcement. Our apes are trained everyday through protected contact, which means that there is always a barrier between the keepers and the apes for safety. The apes have learned behaviors such as open mouth, teeth brushing, body part presentation and injection. These behaviors all help with the daily and medical care for the animals.

Conservation:

The biggest threat to the survival of African wildlife like the gorilla is no longer habitat loss, it’s bush-meat. Bushmeat is the illegal, commercial and unsustainable trade in wildlife meat. Bushmeat is a primary source of protein for village families. Urban consumers have increased their demand for bushmeat to connect with their traditional ways. With global demand increasing for bushmeat, hunting can also be a significant source of income for village families. Conservation International and the World Conservation Union report that one-third of the world’s great apes, monkeys, lemurs and other primate species are now threatened with extinction, many by the bushmeat crisis.