10 Interesting facts about mountain gorillas

10 Interesting facts about mountain gorillas : Mountain gorillas are some of the most famous primates living in Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Though they are famous they are also endangered species, that’s why they are a lot of efforts to help conserve the remaining gorillas in the wild. Those efforts include mountain gorilla trekking that is done all year round at the different parks in the three countries mentioned above.

But before we go deep into mountain gorilla trekking, we want to share with you some interesting facts about mountain gorillas that will further excite you about this momentous experience.

We all know gorillas are huge apes from primate family – they are similar to humans, sharing over 90% of human DNA. They live in forested mountains in high altitudes of these mountains, they feed on leaves, stems, and shoots shrubs. The females give birth to one child at a time and they all live in families of females and young ones led by a male called a silverback.

However did you know that:-

1. These mountain gorillas have longer arms than legs, this is the reason they can comfortably walk on their four limbs. Though they can walk on their legs alone, they usually don’t or when they do it’s for short distances.
2. Mountain gorillas are the strongest primates in the world, they are stronger than chimpanzee, baboons, monkeys etc. Not to mention they are about 6 to 10 times stronger than humans.
3. They are also considered to be the bigger than the low land gorillas. Mountain gorillas weigh between 130 kg to 250 kg sometimes even more. The lowland gorillas on the other hand weigh between 120 kg to 200kg – though in rare cases it may be more.
4. Mountain gorillas have a lifespan of 35 years in the wild or rather their natural habitat and 5 years more if they are held in a zoo or what we would call captivity.
5. Mountain gorilla’s gestation period is only half a month less than that of humans, female mountain gorillas will be pregnant for 8 and a half months, well as humans are generally pregnant for 9 months, 10 Interesting facts about mountain gorillas
6. Young gorillas will mature starting from 7 years to 10 years. The females will be able at the age to mate and give birth. The males at the age called black backs are able to go into the wild and form families to lead.
7. Mountain gorillas are diurnal animals, they use the morning and late afternoons to feed and the day time to play and move around. They take short naps though after the morning feeding. At night the mountain gorillas will be sleeping like humans.
8. Mountain gorillas can survive in extremely cold temperatures helped by their long and thick hairs. Mountain gorillas live between 9,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level.
9. Mountain gorillas are greater affected by human communicable diseases. When the gorillas get such type of diseases they suffer severely and can easily die from the infections. This is why persons who are sick are not allowed to trek mountain gorillas. Because mountain gorillas share DNA with humans, the gorillas can easily catch the diseases from humans.
10. Mountain gorillas are scared of humans, their normal reaction is to runaway when they see humans. That’s why before a gorilla family is available for trekking it’s habituated for about a year to get used to human presence.

Well those are some of the interesting facts about mountain gorillas and you can learn more about mountain gorillas when you visit them in their habitats in Bwindi National Park and Mgahinga National Park in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Virunga National Park in the DRC.