The Great Apes

[GuateGojira]

(01-28-2020, 07:50 PM)The Panther Wrote: @GuateGojira
What did you expect him to look like there? The photo with the man in that position doesn't prove he weighs less than 250 kg, because all you see is his back not his entire body. Huge gorillas are mainly massive in stomach and chest girth, not just their back. That photo with the man gives a good idea of how tall Guhonda is at the shoulder but not his weight. Now, if you were expecting him to look a lot wider than that at over 250 kg, then you need to know that even the 296 kg Samson didn't look extremely wide for a near 300 kg gorilla, in fact even near 300 kg humans can look a lot wider than him. Samson was mainly massive in girth like I mentioned before, so it shows gorillas don't really grow extremely wide after significant weight gain but do so in girth. So that picture doesn't prove anything, unless you were expecting something greater from that position.

The problem with the gas argument is that there's no proof that intestinal gas adds much to their size, and no their bellies don't go flat. So you can't act like that's the main reason for their bulk, when it's most likely due to decades of living that lifestyle. So if what you said was true, then many wild males would look as big as Guhonda or close, yet only some males are similar to him and they just happen to be old and experienced males just like him.

I do believe mountain gorillas might have a 'slimmer period', mainly after leaving the Hagenia forest for the bamboo zone, which happens during the bamboo shoots season. In the bamboo zone they eat less varied food at smaller quantities than their Hagenia home, in fact bamboo shoots apparently make up to 90% of their diet during this season. https://gorillafund.org/what-do-gorillas...no-bamboo/. So they likely get a bit slimmer after spending the season in this zone, and regain their size in the Hagenia forests. There is also another type of area that has less food variety, they would go to the alpine tundra and mainly feed on the Senecio plants, but it seems less favored than the bamboo shoots.

I think that you missunderstand my point. I am not saying that the gorillas weight "more than" or "less than". What I try to explain with this "gas issue" is that the big bellies of the gorillas are inflated, which is a fact, and that make them to look "heavier". In few words, if it is very hard to guess the weights from carnivores, actually it is even harder for herbivores with huge bellies. We don't know its musculature and the density of the bones, also the large hair make them to look even "bigger" from what they are.

So, we can guess that those male gorillas are of 250-300 kg but is only a guess, not based in actual facts or measurements. For the moment, most of the experts state that a male gorilla between 190 - 200 kg is allready a big one and the maximum actualy recorded (from a small sample, to be fair) is of about 220 kg. This male Guhonda looks large, but the more I investigate in the gorillas body masses actually recorded, the more I doubth that this large male is over the 230 kg and 250 kg seems too doubthfull at this moment. Also, comparing captive vs wild animals can create a lot of confusion, it happens with the big cats so I don't doubth that the same may happen with gorillas. At the end is just an opinion, but based in measurements and weights that we actually have. Reply