Featured Animal: Gorilla

Gorillas are the biggest of the worlds primates and live in the forests in select parts of Africa. The gorilla population is sadly much lower than it used to be meaning that gorillas are an endangered species.

Gorillas are herbivores, eating vegetation, fruits, shoots, berries and leaves. An adult male gorilla is able to consume up to 27 kg of food everyday.

Gorillas are thought to be the most closely related to chimps and humans. It is said that the DNA of gorillas is 98-99% identical to human DNA!!

The gorilla is a very sociable animal inhabiting the African wilderness if groups from around 5 to 30 gorillas. The gorilla spend most of their time eating, sleeping and grooming the other gorillas. Gorillas move about by walking on their knuckles which helps to support the gorillas weight

The gorilla is considered to be a highly intelligent animal on a similar level with humans and dolphins. The real extent of the gorillas intelligence is unknown, however one gorilla bred in captivity was successfully trained in human sign language.

The senses of a gorilla are very similar to the senses of the human and include hearing, taste, touch, smell and sight, although the sight of the gorilla is not quite as acute as the sight of the human but the gorilla is thought to be able to see in color vision.

The gorilla spends the night sleeping in a nest which the gorilla makes out of leaves and other plant materials. The nest of the gorilla is shaped like a bowl and is where the mother gorilla will sleep with the baby gorillas.

Despite what many people think, the gorilla is not an aggressive animal as the gorilla is known to be shy and peaceful in nature. The gorilla will generally only display aggressive behavior towards another animal if the gorilla feels under threat but the gorilla will only tend to make lots of noise rather than attacking an unwanted intruder.