How do gorillas survive in their habitat? Gorillas survive in their habitant in different ways as we humans, therefore they are adopted by thumbs that help them to gather plants to eat and their large arm muscles for climbing trees, defense and knuckle walking. Then troops of gorillas are protected by the silverbacks who heads the family ‘’dominant males ‘’ for the protection.
Similar between Mountain Gorillas & Humans; First of all, Mountain gorillas are critically endangered species whom we share a close related genetic of 98% of our DNA. For example; They walk on four legs and have fur and through communication they use tools in different ways such as flushing termites and also have a unique identifier.
Mountain gorillas have a unique pattern on its nose and they also live in a family group with a male as the head of the family called silverback, other part of the family are females, juveniles and infants just like we humans.
How safe is a gorilla family; All gorilla family is being led by a dominant male gorillas called silverback who is in charge of defending the group to death. The gorilla family –mountain gorillas live in a social group which can range between two to thirsty individuals. The dominant silverback is the one who dictates all the group activities through deciding on when and where to go next.
Note; A silverback gorilla is stronger than humans meaning, they are ten times stronger than an adult human.
They spend their morning and evening feeding, during midday they do ,resting, playing, taking a nap and grooming themselves.
Then late in the evening, they start building their night nests using twigs and leaves.
More so about the silverback, will protect the family or territory, if they are attacked by humans ‘’poachers’’ leopards or other silverbacks.
Do mountain gorillas sleep on trees? Generally, it is well believed that primates prefer to stay, play on tree branches but not all species it’s only those in small sizes like golden moneys, colobus monkeys, white and black monkeys among others, the same which can’t be said of mountain gorillas. Because adult mountain gorillas are too heavy to climb trees all the time. They only climb tree if they need to collect ripe fruits that can support their weight. Rather they do this rarely. This is more done by the youngster that climb short study trees more frequently, because they are not such heavy as the adult’s ones.
Are Mountain Gorillas Gentle? The fact is that mountain gorillas are so gentle that they can’t harm unless are being threatened. It is truly humbling that gorillas are one of the gentlest and peaceful creatures you will ever encounter. They live in calm life in a well-organized group and rarely attack unless given a chance to.
Mountain gorillas are very different from chimpanzees which seems to be aggressive and will hunt other smaller primates or animals like antelopes for meat if they get chance.
Gorillas charging to anyone is very rare and if so, they will first attempt to communicate their displeasure to an intruder.
What Is the Diet of Mountain Gorillas? Mountain gorillas mainly feed on fruits, leaves, tree barks, stems, roots and ants. It is well known that a silver back eats around 18 kilograms of vegetation during day time to support his massive body. More so, they eat too much because of the cold conditions they live in, the montane rainforest. And because they feed so much on leaves and tree barks, their diet is high in dyeing.
What stage do female mountain gorillas leave the Group or Give Birth? A Female mountain gorillas reached maturity at age of 9 years. Pregnant mothers once they are able to give birth, a female will leave the mothers family to find a suitor with another silverback.
A female mountain gorilla carries a baby for 9 months and normally give back to one infant most of the time. Giving birth to twin in mountain gorillas is very rare and if that happens both tourists and the conservationists celebrate such an event.
An infant usually weighs about 1.8 kilograms at birth and mothers tend to carry them on their backs as a form of transportation since they keep on moving to places and once they turn four months of age their mother stop carrying them.
Which countries and national parks to find mountain gorillas? Mountain gorillas can be found in three countries in entire world that is Uganda and in Uganda mountain gorillas can be found in two gifted parks –Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National park a home to world’s half remaining mountain gorillas and Mgahinga Gorilla National park both located in southwestern region of Uganda ,approximately 8 to 9 hours’ drive from Kampala or Entebbe to main visited destination .Rwanda and in Rwanda Mountain gorilla can be found in Volcanoes National Park and Democratic Republic of Congo in Virunga National Park, How Do Gorillas Survive in Their Habitat?.
Is gorilla trekking worthy the monkey? Answer is yes! Gorilla trekking safari experience is worth all the money provided the time given to spend with them, watch them how they enjoy their social life. Although, permits fees are paid differently
What is the cost of mountain gorillas permits? In Uganda Gorilla permits costs USD700 for foreign nonresident, USD600 for foreign resident and 250,000 for East African members only paid per person per trek.
In Uganda mountain gorilla permits can be issued from ‘’UWA’’ Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Rwanda gorilla permits costs USD1,500 per person per day bit expensive.
In Rwanda gorilla permits can be purchased from the Rwanda Development Board Offices in Kigali or Ruhengeri located near to the park
Congo gorilla permits is cheap at USD400 per person per trek.
In Congo -gorilla permits can be sold inside Virunga National Park, in regard of also supporting the Visa processing, transportation and guiding services.
Note, Mountain gorilla trekking is one-hour experience provided to the tourists to spend with gorillas to observe them.
There is also gorilla habituation experience which can only be done in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park and trackers are allowed four hours to stay with the gorillas than in normal gorilla trekking.
Get started now –planning to meet up with our close related cousins the great mountain gorillas in their beautiful nature environment.
