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Gorilla - GORILLA GORILLA

Endangered

Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
Subclass: True Mammals (Eutheria)
Order: First Order Mammals (Primatea)
Family: Pongidae.

The word "Gorilla": "Gorilla" comes from the old Greek story about an African tribe of hairy men, called "Gorillai."

Location: Small areas in central and west central Africa..

Habitat: Terrestrial. Lowland and montane tropical forest.

Description: The gorilla is the largest of the primates. the head is especially large, and it has highly developed chest muscles. The shape of its face varies somewhat, as do its facial expressions. Its ears are relatively small, and the nostrils are always flared. The coat is black, but has silver highlights in adult males, when it is referred to as a silverback. When a gorilla is older than ten years the whole coat tends to turn gray. In colder parts of the gorilla's range, the coat tends to be shaggier, and longer. A full-grown gorilla can stand well over six feet tall when upright, and can weigh up to 500 lbs, but the female is much smaller.

Behavior: The gorilla lives mainly on the ground, and adults only venture into trees to build nests, though young gorillas often play in trees. On the ground it is quadrupedal and the weight of the body rests at the front on the middle knuckles of the fingers in a kind of locomotion called knuckle-walking. The gorilla is a peaceful creature, and will only attack if provoked. A diurnal vegetarian, it lives in groups of two to thirty individuals, always dominated by a large male. The gorilla has a rich vocal repertory and a wide range of gestures. Like the orangutan and chimpanzee, the gorilla has been taught a large vocabulary of signs language, and can remember these signs for years.

Reproduction: After a 250 to 290 day gestation, a single offspring (rarely twins) is born.