gorilla

Largest of the apes, found in the dense forests of West Africa and mountains of central Africa. The male stands about 1.8 m/6 ft high and weighs about 200 kg/450 lb. Females are about half this size. The body is covered with blackish hair, silvered on the back in older males. Gorillas live in family groups; they are vegetarian, highly intelligent, and will attack only in self-defence. They are dwindling in numbers, being shot for food by some local people, or by poachers taking young for zoos, but protective measures are having some effect. (Species Gorilla gorilla.)

Gorillas construct stoutly built nests in trees for overnight use. The breast-beating movement, once thought to indicate rage, actually signifies only nervous excitement. There are three races – western lowland, eastern lowland, and mountain gorillas – and US scientists suggested in 1994 that there may be two separate species of gorilla. In 1998 the Worldwide Fund for Nature estimated that there were 111,000 western lowland gorillas remaining, 10,000 eastern lowland, and 620 mountain gorillas.

Scientists analysed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the three races of gorilla and found that the mtDNA of the West African lowland gorilla was significantly different from that of the two East African subspecies. The difference is greater than that between the common chimpanzee and the bonobo (pygmy chimpanzee), which are classified as separate species. Gorillas, believed to constitute a single species, were divided into two separate species in June 2000, following a meeting of primatologists, conservationists, and taxonomists in Orlando, Florida. The eastern gorilla Gorilla beringei now comprises three subspecies, and the western gorilla G. gorilla comprises two.