Western lowland gorillas vary between sleeping on the bare ground and constructing nests from vegetation. Nonetheless, long-term field studies over the past thirty years provide a broad picture of their daily lives and the similarities and differences therein to other, more easily studied gorillas subspecies. Western lowland gorillas are shy, live in low visibility areas, and range widely, all of which makes studying them in the wild challenging. Infanticide at the hands of a new alpha male may occur if the silverback is replaced by a new leader or the group disintegrates. Like other gorillas, silverbacks also beat their chests-recent studies indicate that their chest beats accurately signal their physical prowess and size.
WESTERN LOWLAND GORILLA SILVERBACK SERIES
Silverbacks adjust their stance to a bipedal position at the climax of their aggression displays, which follow a common sequence: a series of soft escalating hoots, rising to two legs, and (sometimes) running and tearing vegetation. They ford shallow streams, but cannot swim. For various physiological reasons, including their size, they cannot brachiate (swing from trees).
Gorillas nearly always walk on all fours and climb trees cautiously. Western gorillas rely more heavily on fruit than other subspecies, which may explain their small group size fruit occurs in clumped patches that cannot support large groups. Occasionally, males form groups, referred to as “bachelor groups,” with no adult females. Their group structure differs somewhat from other gorilla subspecies, which are larger and more regularly feature multiple male members.
Usually, groups comprise a dominant silverback, several adult females, and their young. Western lowland gorillas live in groups of four to eight individuals.
Western lowland gorillas are more numerous than the other three gorilla subspecies including their Cross River gorilla “cousins” and the two subspecies of eastern gorilla: the mountain gorilla, Gorilla beringei beringei, and Grauer’s gorilla, Gorilla beringei graueri, formerly known as the eastern lowland gorilla. Estimates of their total population range from 95,000-100,000 individuals. Their seclusion, in both habitat and behavior, makes it difficult for wildlife biologists to accurately determine how many of these great apes remain in the world. They tend to avoid areas near human settlements and villages. Western lowland gorillas live in primary and secondary lowland tropical forests, swamp forests, and a variety of other forested areas. The Congo is believed to harbor the largest number of these great apes. The western lowland gorilla is the most widespread of all gorillas, inhabiting the dense and remote tropical rainforests of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Angola, and the isolated lowland swampy forests of the Republic of Congo on the African continent. The western lowland gorilla is one of two subspecies of western gorilla-the rare Cross River gorilla, Gorilla gorilla diehli, being the other.
LIFE IN THE WORLD’S TROPICAL RAINFORESTS.THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING HABITIT: THE CANDY CULPRIT.ALPHABET SOUP OF CONSERVATION-VIDEO AND INTRODUCTION.10 OF THE MOST ENDANGERED PRIMATE SPECIES.10 PRIMATE SPECIES YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF.10 OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN PRIMATE SPECIES.“TRUE LEMURS,” BAMBOO LEMURS, RUFFED LEMURS.GRIVET, MALBROUCK, TANTALUS, GREEN, AND VERVET MONKEYS.
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