In comparison to western lowland gorillas, found in low altitude tropical forests, eastern lowland gorillas travel much less and increase their consumption of herbaceous vegetation.Įastern lowland gorillas are highly sociable and very peaceful, living in groups of two to over 30. Although they occasionally eat ants, insects form only a minor part of their diet. Farmers who have come in contact with gorillas in their plantations have killed the gorilla and obtained a double benefit, protecting their crop and using the meat of the gorilla to sell at the market.Įastern lowland gorilla has a varied plants diet including fruits, leaves, stems and bark as well as small insects such as ants and termites. The eastern lowland gorilla shows a preference for regenerating vegetation associated with abandoned villages and fields. Gorillas do not eat banana fruits, but they may destroy banana trees to eat the nutritious pith. One of the most studied eastern lowland gorilla population lives in the highlands of Kahuzi-Biega, where habitats vary between dense primary forests to moderately moist woodland, to Cyperus swamp and peat bog. The eastern lowland gorilla has the widest altitudinal range of any of the gorilla subspecies, being found in mountainous, transitional and lowland tropical forests. Groups of eastern lowland gorillas are usually larger than those of western gorillas. Gorillas are stable apes as they stay together for months and years at a time, much like the structure of a family. Gorillas spend long hours feeding on plant matter every day. Outside their native range, only one female eastern lowland gorilla lives in captivity, at the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium. There are far fewer eastern lowland gorillas compared to western lowland gorillas.According to a 2004 report there were only about 5,000 eastern lowland gorillas in the wild, down to fewer than 3,800 in 2016, compared to over 100,000 western lowland gorillas. The male's coat, like that of other gorillas, greys as the animal matures, resulting in the designation "silverback". It has a jet black coat like the mountain gorilla ( Gorilla beringei beringei ), although the hair is shorter on the head and body. It is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies. Important populations of this gorilla live in the Kahuzi-Biega and Maiko National Parks and their adjacent forests, the Tayna Gorilla Reserve, the Usala forest and on the Itombwe Massif. The eastern lowland gorilla ( Gorilla beringei graueri ) or Grauer's gorilla is a Critically Endangered subspecies of eastern gorilla endemic to the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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