The Great Apes

[The Panther]

Gorillas

Gorillas are great apes found in West Africa to a small portion of East Africa, primarily in the rainforests of those regions. They can be found in forests from sea level to over 10,000 ft, they've also been seen roaming freezing tundras at over 13,000 ft, showing they have the greatest range of climatic adaption of all wild great apes. Gorillas like orangutans are very sexually dimorphic, males are significantly larger and more robust than females. Adult males develop a large sagittal crest that gives off a cone shape, they also develop a silver saddle of fur on their backs which whitens as they age. Both male and female gorillas have bare chests as adults, with males displaying very well defined pectoral muscles. 

Gorillas are made up of 4 (potentially 5) subspecies, 2 of them are called western gorillas and the other 2 eastern, western lowland and Cross River gorillas in the west and mountain and Grauer's gorillas (aka eastern lowland) in the east. Western gorillas are generally lighter in colour, adult males have silver fur extending past the back to their legs and reddish fur on their forehead, eastern gorillas have darker coats with a more well defined silver saddle on their backs than western gorillas. Mountain gorillas have the longest coats of all gorillas, they also have fur covering their eyebrows which is generally unseen in other populations, this trait is very common specifically among the Virunga population of mountain gorillas likely due to living in even colder conditions than the Bwindi population. 

Gorillas live in groups of up to 10 to 50 members, the latter number is found in the eastern populations which generally have the largest groups. These groups usually have 1 silverback at the helm though eastern gorilla groups have been known to have multiple silverbacks, they tend to be brothers or the older sons of the dominant silverback. Gorillas are the largest of the great apes, they have the greatest difference in size between populations of all wild great apes. Western gorillas are generally smaller than eastern gorillas, adult males generally weigh 330 lbs to over 400 lbs and females over 220 lbs, adult males can be 5 ft 6 to over 6 ft and females over 4 ft 11. Eastern gorillas are the largest extent of wild great apes, adult males weigh between 375 lbs to over 485 lbs and can be between 5 ft 7 to 6 ft 6. Adult females don't seem too different from their western counterparts but they do seem to get substantially heavier later in life. It's possible the biggest wild eastern gorillas could get to over 550 lbs due to mid to late life obesity, at those stages in life they tend to resemble obese captive gorillas in appearance, these are the same captive gorillas that have weighed well over 500 lbs to over 650 lbs. Like with other apes, as far as I'm concerned the maximum size range for wild gorillas is unknown due to a lack of information.

Western lowland gorilla

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Cross River gorilla

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Virunga mountain gorilla

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Bwindi mountain gorilla (potential 5th subspecies)

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Grauer's gorilla

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