Gorilla Research Paper

The gorilla is the world’s largest primate. Gorillas are mammals. Young and younger gorillas are called blackbacks. Older males have white hair on their backs and are called silverbacks. Silverbacks gorillas are the most aggressive person in the group. The duty of the silverback gorilla is to protect others from dangerous threats. They can get angry very fast. The males are twice as big as the females (Morgan 2).

The name gorrilla means “hairy person” and was first used by an explorer from North Africa 2,500 years ago (seaworld.org) . There used to be a million of gorillas also including chimpanzees, monkeys and orangutans, (enchantedlearning.com). In today’s world, there are about 150,000 gorillas left (defenders.org). Many people think that gorillas are dangerous, but they rarely attack humans.

Gorillas are shy animals that are mostly active during the day (seaworld.com). Few forest animals attack gorillas, their enemies are human hunters, who shoot gorillas for their meat. Sadly, people still hunt and kill gorillas and there is only a small number of them left in the world. They rest in late morning and around midday. They support each other with kindness and consideration. Towards the end of the day, gorillas build
nests for sleeping. There are many places to build a nest, it’s either on the ground or up in a tree. Gorillas are herbivores. Their daily food include fruits, bamboo shoots and mainly a vegetarian diet. Most of the plant food they eat is coarse (John, Dennis,and Dianne, 10). About 550 gorillas are kept in zoos and wildlife parks in case the wild gorillas become extinct. In the wild, under half of young gorillas die before they are three years old. When an adult male takes over a family group, he may kill some of the baby gorillas that belonged to the previous silverbacks. Gorillas are known for their relation with humans.
Gorillas are one of the four species that are closest living to humans. A male gorilla is about 6 inches (15 cm) shorter than a average human but its arms are 12 inches (30 cm) longer (Morgan 4). Gorillas are quiet animals, but they do use sounds to talk to each other. They can make about 25 different sounds including screams, grunts, and barks. Gorillas use facial expressions to let others know whether if they are feeling angry or sad, just like people. Some gorillas have learned American Sign Language or ASL for short. Koko is captive gorilla who has learned sign language. She knows for about 1,000 signs and understands 2,000 words of spoken English according to the book Gorillas by Sally
Morgan.
In conclusion, gorillas are amazing animals that are becoming extinct. The best way to save the gorillas is to protecting their habitat and stop the hunting. They will die out there if all trees are cut down or in other words, they won’t have a home. Most people have the wrong views about gorillas. They portrait them as dangerous killer animals but the fact is, they are shy and gentle animals like some humans. 96% of our DNA is the same as gorillas (PlanetScience.com). Only difference is their hardened skin which protects them for cutting.