Gorillas are often seen in the movies and television shows are big monster that people have to learn to deal with in the long run. Sometimes, gorillas are portrayed as scary creatures. There are times, however, when gorillas are shown as friendly animals which are a lot like human beings. Gorillas can be described and defined in many ways, especially with the help of mass media. Then again, in a scientific context, here is a gorilla really is: The Gorillas Population: There are a lot of living primates in the world, and the largest of its kind are gorillas.
These are herbivores that live by dwelling on the ground. Most gorillas are found in Africa, especially in the forests of the said country (Alverdes, 1969).
Gorillas survive very well in subtropical or tropical forests although a lot of them thrive in mountains and in different elevations. Elevated areas where gorillas can be found are the Virunga Volcanoes in Albertine Rift. Some gorillas thrive in the lowlands, too, where lots of them are found in marshes, swamps and thick forests (Alverdes, 1969).
Gorillas Family Life:
The family life of gorillas shows how much similar they are to humans. Gorillas are considered social creatures who typically build harems. Harems, in this context, means that silver back male gorillas will live with its offsprings and a lot of adult female gorillas (Alverdes, 1969).
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Then again, with the gorillas that live in mountains, only 40% of which have various closely-related male gorillas (Alverdes, 1969).
Generally, gorillas groups contain more females than males. In fact, males in the gorillas family are considered “left-overs”.
Male gorillas go round and about the forests alone. The male gorillas, being loners themselves, make up only five to ten percent of the general population of gorillas. An all-male group of gorillas even exists, all of which are found in elevated areas. This all-male gorillas group is called the mountain gorillas (Alverdes, 1969).
Gorilla groups come in different sizes. On the average, there are only four to ten members in a gorilla group. It was in the Central African Republic where the largest gorilla group was found.
The largest gorillas group was made up of 52 gorillas (Alverdes, 1969).
Gorilla groups have leaders, too. What, then, happens when the leader of the gorilla group dies? It is either the whole group just gets dissolved, or a gorilla takes over. Like humans, gorillas have standards, too. The only gorilla who can take over the leadership is the son of the leader who passed away. If not, then it should be the subordinate silver back male gorilla (Alverdes, 1969).
These western lowland gorillas are one of the sub-species of the family of gorillas.
Each group is composed of ten gorillas and sometimes only six. The leader is the strongest and the fiercest male called the silver back gorilla (Alverdes, 1969).
The leaders of such group are challenged, too, to know who deserves to take over. Adolescent males wait until they grow big enough for the challenge and if they don’t get the leadership in their hands, they can always leave home and be the leader of the new family he will have to build (Alverdes, 1969).
Recent studies show that the 100,000 lowland gorillas in the western part of Africa are no longer 100,000.
Today, there may only be around 50,000 gorillas left because of the trade in ape meat (which is illegal) and also because of a disease caused by ebola virus (Alverdes, 1969).
Gorillas – A Lot Like Humans? Now here are some behavioral patterns that make gorillas and human beings similar to each other: Gorillas are generally aggressive creatures. Their aggressive behaviors found in the human population are their habit of headlong charge, roaring very loudly and beating their own chest (Derbyshire, 2007).
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With this, it goes to show that gorillas have a macho reputation like humans.
However, despite this reputation, these creatures are very gentle especially when it is their time to eat their meals. Researches show that they also have the habit of cleaning their faces and fingers especially when they just finished consuming their food in a messy manner. If humans use water and soap to clean their fingers and faces, gorillas use giant leaves to replace what humans would call as napkins (Derbyshire, 2007).
Dr Noelle Kumpel, a researcher from the Zoological Society of London in West Africa, was surprised when he saw how gorillas used leaves as napkins.
How do gorillas do this? They simply tear big leaves from trees and plants. Gorillas wipe their hands and mouths after a meal. No one can deny that is a very basic human activity because before and after eating, humans really clean themselves up. They wash their hands and clean their mouths and dry themselves with a dry towel (Derbyshire, 2007).
It has been mentioned awhile ago that gorillas, like humans, are social beings, too. Whatever image of gorillas there is that is portrayed on the television and the cinema are not any inch close to how they are in person.
Gorillas are very gentle and delicate creatures, sometimes even gentler and more delicate than human beings. Members of the Zoological Society of London in West Africa observed the behaviors of gorillas in Gabon, a conversation park where lowland gorillas are found. They learned and witnessed with their very own eyes how gentle gorillas are compared to chimpanzees. They show sings of sympathy, friendship and leadership among themselves (Derbyshire, 2007).
Another amazing thing about gorillas is that, like humans, they care about their diet, too.
Observers discovered that gorillas follow a vegetarian diet. They only eat whatever they see around them, but it is limited only to fruits and leaves (Derbyshire, 2007).
Like human beings, gorillas care about how they look. If they see a mud, bug or a flee in another gorilla’s body, they take it away from that gorilla’s body. It clearly goes to show that gorillas take pride in their hair which they consider a very significant part of their family life as gorillas (Derbyshire, 2007).
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Another surprising behavior that gorillas have is that they are technologically minded.
If their cousin chimpanzees use stones, twigs and other tools to get some food, gorillas do it differently (Derbyshire, 2007).
Like humans, gorillas find better ways to make life easier and more convenient for them. Gorillas use sticks to get to the other side of the pools and swamps or in some other areas they will otherwise not reach without the help of the sticks (Derbyshire, 2007).
In A Nutshell: To summarize the whole study, what, in general, makes the gorillas similar to human beings? It is how they behave in a given environment and how they react to situations. It is with the way gorillas try to survive.
It is with their ability to think. Not all animals will think about removing flees from another animal’s hair because only gorillas and human beings know the value of cleanliness and hygiene. The same goes with how gorillas tear giant leaves from trees and plants to clean themselves up after a meal. What makes gorillas and human beings a lot like each other is their ability to think, plan and execute the plans to come up with a result. It is basically about wanting to win the battle of survival called life which other creatures wouldn’t even be aware of.
Works Cited:
Alverdes, Friedrich. “The Social Life in the Animal World. ” Routledge Press, 1999. Ciochon, Russell and John Fleagle. “Primate Evolution and Human Origins. ” Aldine Transaction Press, 1987. Derbyshire, David. 20 June 2007. “How gorillas have perfect manners at meal times. ” Daily Mail. 13 May 2008 <http://www. dailymail. co. uk/pages/live/articles/news/news. html? in_article_id=463365&in_page_id=1770>. Fossey, Dian. “Gorillas in the Mist. ” Houghton Mifflin Books, 1988. Taylor, Andrea Beth and Michele Lynn Goldsmith. “Gorillas Biology: A Multidisciplinary Perspective. ” Cambridge University Press, 2004.
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