29 Oct 2024        11:53:13 am

Environmental Ecology

Gorillas

Tags : Gorillas

Topic: Biodiversity

Why in the news?

• Scientists believe that gorillas could offer insights into future drug discoveries through their self-medicating behaviour, according to a new study. 
• Four potentially medicinal tropical plants that are used by local healers have been found by researchers in Gabon through their investigation of the plants that wild gorillas eat.
• These plants are abundant in antioxidants and antimicrobials, and one of them may be able to fight superbugs according to laboratory experiments.

Source: Down To Earth

About Gorillas:

• These are the largest of the great apes.
  • There are 5 species of great apes, including, gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee, bonobo, and human.
• They share 98.3% of their genetic code with humans, making them our closest cousins after chimpanzees and bonobos.
• Gorillas and humans shared a common ancestor about 10 million years ago.
• There are two gorilla species in the world: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla. The mountain gorilla is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla.
• Distribution:
  • Gorillas live only in tropical forests of equatorial Africa. 
    • Eastern gorillas live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda, and Rwanda. 
    • Western gorillas live in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, Angola, and the DRC.
• Features:
  • They are large powerful animals with strong prominent chests, and shoulders.
  • Males are about twice as heavy as females and may attain a height of about 1.7 metres and weight (in the wild) of 135–220 kg.
  • They have large, human-like hands with muscular arms that are longer than their legs.
  • They have dark skin and black to brown-grey hair.
  • Males acquire silver-gray saddles across their backs and upper thighs at sexual maturity, earning them the name silverback.
  • The face has large nostrils, small ears, and prominent brow ridges. 
• They live in family groups of usually five to ten. The groups are polygamous, with one adult silverback gorilla, leading the troop and mating with the female members.
• They are active during the day (diurnal) and primarily terrestrial, usually walking about on all four limbs with part of its weight supported on the knuckles of its hands. This mode of locomotion, called knuckle walking, is shared with chimpanzees. 
• Their diet is vegetarian.
• Both the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla are classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ under the IUCN Red List.

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