Mountain gorillas are an endangered species of primates only found in Virunga national park in Congo, volcanoes national park in Rwanda, Mgahinga gorilla national park and Bwindi impenetrable forest national park in Uganda.
Gorillas are divided into two species that is Eastern gorillas and Western gorillas and this are further sun divided into four sub species of Eastern low land gorillas, mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas and cross river gorillas.
Gorillas usually live in troops of 5-40 individuals being led by an alpha male known as silverback. The Silverback is responsible for the groups safety, dictates where they sleep in, what time to forage and all other activities in the group. A silverback is the only male who has the rights to mate with all females in the group.
Gorillas usually forage all day starting from early morning until about midday when they take a rest and restart foraging again in the afternoon until about 7pm in the evening. Gorilla diet is composed of vegetation including bamboo shoots, leaves, fruits, stems, roots and they occasionally supplement their diets with invertebrates like white ants
Gorillas were almost extinct in the late 19th century but the efforts being put by primatologists and other conservationists is the reason we are able to trek gorillas in their natural habitat today. The main threat to gorilla population is poaching, habitat loss and diseases. Gorillas are rarely prone to natural predators but once in a while become victims of leopards.
Although they can walk upright for short distances, gorillas mainly move by knuckle walking. Wild male gorillas can weigh from 136kgs to 227kgs while females weigh from 68kgs to 113kgs. Males are also usually taller than female mountain gorillas. The heaviest mountain gorilla ever recorded weighed 267kgs and got shot in Ambam, Cameroon. The tallest gorilla recorded was 1.95 meters that was also shot in Alimbongo, North Kivu in 1938.
Mature mountain gorilla males normally leave their groups to form their own groups and in most cases they first fight the dominating silverback trying to take over the group and if lucky they can take over or grab some individuals to come their own gorilla families. Sometimes this fights are very dangerous leading to bad injuries that later cause death.
Female gorillas reach sexual maturity from the age of 9-12 years, they have only 1-2 fertile days in a month and once they conceive the gestation period is eight and half months. Female gorillas give birth to 2-6 off springs in their life time. The mothers breastfeed and take care of their young ones until the age of 4-5 years, they even sleep in the same nest with their young then later separate nests although they still stay close to their mothers.
