The Great Apes

[The Panther]

(12-28-2022, 06:09 PM)johnny rex Wrote:

(12-10-2022, 02:46 PM)The Panther Wrote:

(12-07-2022, 07:44 PM)johnny rex Wrote:

(06-19-2022, 11:41 AM)The Panther Wrote: Large dominant silverback mountain gorilla defends a young blackback (teenage male) after a younger silverback attacks him. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda.

I've noticed when gorillas fight eachother it's very similar to how bears fight, they have a similar grappling and biting style, they also have a similar kind of intensity about them when they fight.

Yet most people still think gorillas fight like King Kong and other fictional gorillas but in reality, they do not.

To be fair it's not like they're fighting dinosaurs like in the 2005 movie lol, they're fighting a fellow gorilla so the rules might differ a bit. But yeah they generally fight like bears, which to me is just as scary, because the way they fight is very intense and like bears they are solid grapplers. They can rip apart flesh with their teeth once the enemy is on the ground just like bears.

Even as a possibility to be able to fight like fictional characters (i.e. King Kong), I don't think so. Gorillas may fight differently depending on what kind of animals that confronted them, but to fight like King Kong I think is out of the realm of possibility. Bears fight the same regardless of the kind of the animals. Wrestle, wrestle, wrestle, bite, bite, bite.

Yeah I was joking around, I was playing devil's advocate for them due to Kong fighting dinosaurs instead of gorillas. So yes, in reality they fight more like bears than anything which to me is even more fierce than the movies, it's less human like and very intense. Reply

[The Panther]

(12-28-2022, 06:17 PM)johnny rex Wrote:

(12-10-2022, 02:31 PM)The Panther Wrote:

(12-07-2022, 07:35 PM)johnny rex Wrote:

(09-29-2022, 04:07 PM)The Panther Wrote: N'gagi and M'bongo, the 2 mountain gorillas that lived in San Diego Zoo back in the 1940's. One of the very rare examples of mountain gorillas living in zoos. Despite their young age they were some of the biggest captive gorillas ever recorded, N'gagi peaked at 635 lbs and M'bongo's official weight was 618 lbs, though he was said to have fluctuated between 645 to 670 lbs in life. N'gagi died at 18 and M'bongo at 16, so they were young, in the wild for a mountain gorilla to reach such impressive weights or anything remotely close they'd have to be twice their age, hence why the biggest males are usually over 30 years old.

This is N'gagi at 535 lbs

*This image is copyright of its original author

M'bongo at 602 lbs

*This image is copyright of its original author

N'gagi (left) M'bongo (right)

*This image is copyright of its original author

What's interesting is that they don't look too different from the largest wild mountain gorillas, the males generally twice their age. This really shows just how impressive those older wild males are, it makes me wonder how heavy they would be if they were actually weighed.

Here are their status at San Diego Zoo

*This image is copyright of its original author

Aren't they actually lowland gorillas? Other sources said they were lowland gorillas but many eastern gorilla subspecies can appear similar to each other.

Yes I've seen the mix up before, but what seems more credible is that they were mountain gorillas based on what I read. Their head shape and broader faces also show Virunga mountain gorilla characteristics, though as you mentioned these features can occasionally appear in other populations, especially Bwindi mountain gorillas. Lowland gorillas although they may vary, they still seem more consistent than other Eastern gorillas in features. 

Their coats are shorter, which is likely due to growing up in the San Diego climate. I don't know what they were thinking taking mountain gorillas there, mountain gorillas never experience hot temperatures in the wild, it's usually quite cool (at the warmest) in the day time and gets cold to even freezing at night in their usual habitat.

No matter if they're mountain gorilla or eastern lowland gorilla, it just shows that eastern gorillas tend to be bigger than their western counterparts. Samson from the Milwaukee zoo was 652 lbs and M'bongo was, at his highest, 670 lbs.

Exactly. Both N'gagi and M'bongo were very young, both reached over 600 lbs at under 16 years of age, while Samson lived a lot longer than them and had more time to reach his potential. Eastern gorillas are prone to being very big and bulky, mountain gorillas especially start looking chubby even as juveniles. Reply

[johnny rex]

An impressive looking Eastern Lowland silverback gorilla. He looks like some of the mountain silverback gorilla from the Bwindi area. According to the photo description, his name is Chimanuka. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eastern-lowland-gorilla-grauer-chimanuka-family-1186396366

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[The Panther]

(01-02-2023, 02:24 PM)johnny rex Wrote: An impressive looking Eastern Lowland silverback gorilla. He looks like some of the mountain silverback gorilla from the Bwindi area. According to the photo description, his name is Chimanuka. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/eastern-lowland-gorilla-grauer-chimanuka-family-1186396366

Through the years, I've always noticed the similarities between Grauer's gorillas and Bwindi gorillas. They both have long faces and long flat noses, though Bwindi gorillas generally have wider faces. Virunga mountain gorillas seem to have the most wide ranging features of all eastern gorillas, you can see a very noticeable difference between a male like Guhonda or a male like Munyinya for example, despite them being in the same region. Munyinya had a huge beard and an easily more impressive head compared to Guhonda's, both were similar sized males despite the differences. Reply

[The Panther]

The massive silverback Titus walking alone. He died back in 2009 at 35 years old, this was not long before he died. Virunga mountains, Volcanoes National Park Rwanda.

Seeing a huge mountain gorilla like this walk reminds me of a huge male bear on the prowl, just so much bulk and fur walking through the forest, it's impressive. Reply

[The Panther]

Lovely image of dominant male Bornean orangutan called Kusasi. Tanjung Puting national park, Indonesia.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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[The Panther]

Great shot of a big bulky silverback called Rushaga. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda.
Look at the girth of this guy, very impressive.

*This image is copyright of its original author

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[Spalea]

The first time I see an account about chimpanzees attacking and killing gorillas in wild. I noticed that the chimp are, and by far, the most aggressive big apes. But it's always amazing to see, that, among big apes, they are the most closely related to humans behavior, able to attack in group in order to kill the young chimps belonging to an other pride and so on... They are also known to kill and eat some other apes, including young chimps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7dlTMDYcwo

The owner of this video doesn't authorize its diffusion onto an other support than youtube... Reply

[The Panther]

Dominant male Kusasi grabs famous actress Julia Roberts. Tanjung Putting National Park, Indonesia.

He grabs her at 1:49 min and holds her for quite sometime. Just look at the size of his hands as he grabs her, she would've never got away if he was more motivated and they'd probably have to use more extreme methods to free her. Reply

[The Panther]

A big Western silverback encountered in Lesio Louna Reserve Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

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[The Panther]

Beautiful colourful shot of the huge Mafunzo male and his group. Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda.

*This image is copyright of its original author

He was pretty young, being born in 1999 but he was massive despite that as you can see, he reminds me of a much older male. He unfortunately died in 2022 due to infection. He was the only silverback of his group leaving females and their young in the process, but thankfully his group are currently settling in with a new group lead by an unrelated silverback. Reply

[The Panther]

Interesting video that shows Chimpanzee interactions with predators in various parts of Africa. The title is a bit of a bait, but still interesting video. You may need to watch it on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/8nsRPhseatQ

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[The Panther]

Huge male calmly walking by a tourist. Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda

I don't know this male by name unfortunately.

Look at the size of him. He's not the tallest silverback I've seen yet his head reaches close to that man's chest and the man doesn't even look short. That man can literally ride him through the forest and given that the silverback is so wide and round, that man's foot wouldn't even touch the ground. Mountain gorillas tend to be shorter (only at the shoulder) on average due to their high altitude adaptation, It makes me wonder what a taller mountain or Eastern lowland gorilla would look like compared to him. By the way, the look on his face is priceless. Reply

[The Panther]

Long-haired Chimpanzee in Mahale Mountains National Par, Tanzania.

   
Even chimpanzees show climatic adaptations.The temperatures here isn't freezing cold like what mountain gorillas go through, it's still cool enough to cause chimpanzees to develop denser coats as a result.Their skin is much more covered than their lowland counterparts leaving them with little to no open patches of skin showing. Reply

[johnny rex]

https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/d...8ef23.html

https://www.facebook.com/625918240776106...954435064/

According to these sources, Phil the captive Eastern/Western? lowland silverback gorilla was 776 lbs when he died. That makes him the largest captive gorilla ever, more than Samson. Reply