Scientific name- Gorilla gorilla class- mammalia order- primata family- pongidae genus- gorilla The gorillas live mainly in coastal West Africa in the Congo, Zaire, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Gorillas live in the rain forest. They usually live on the ground but build nest in trees to sleep in. Gorilla troops keep a 15-20 square mile range which often overlaps the range of other troops. There are three different kinds of gorillas. The eastern lowland gorilla the western lowland and the mountain gorilla. They are herbivores and eat only wild celery, roots, tree bark pulp, fruit, stems of many plants and bamboo shoots. They spend nearly half their day eating.
The destruction of their habitat and destruction are the two great threats to the gorillas. The places where they are found are poor and densely populated. The land that is set aside for gorillas is being taken over by agriculture. The wire traps that poachers set out for antelope usually end up catching gorillas instead. People kill them for their heads and hands as trophies. The western lowland gorilla is listed as an endangered species. The physical characteristics of a gorilla are, the male may be from a height of 5.5 ft and a weight of about 400 lbs. The female can be as tall as 5 ft. and weight almost about half the weight of the male. Their skull is pretty much similar to ours, but their bones are thicker. The gorillas spine doesn't have the curvatures we do so it can not stand up straight. The skin on them is black and they have very coarse hair which may look it but is not quite black. Their life span is about 45 years in captivity and about 35 years in the wild There are three different types of gorillas in the groups. There is the silverback male. Silverbacks are the adult males. They get silver hair on their back as part of their growing process, just like when boys grow up and get mustaches and beards. The silverback is the leader of the group. He is