Types of Gorillas: Gorilla Species and Sub Species in the World
Types or species of Gorillas in Africa or in the world include the Eastern Gorilla and the Western Gorilla. Going deeper, each type contains two subspecies of gorillas under it. The gorilla species and sub species are spread across the various places where to see gorillas in Africa. The natural destinations where to see or trek gorillas are found in East and Central Africa plus others outside the continent in the zoos.
Gorilla Types and Classifications: Main Species and Sub species:
The eastern gorilla species comprise of the Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and the Eastern Lowland gorilla also known as Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)
The Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) contains the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
Types of Gorillas, Quick Summary:-
1. Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei)
(a) Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
(b) Eastern Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri)
2. Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla)
(a) Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)
(b) Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli)
What are gorillas?
Gorillas are herbivorous, largely ground-dwelling great apes that live in the humid woodlands of equatorial Africa. The Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) of gorillas is very much alike to that of human bingss, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included and are next closest living relatives to people after chimpanzees and bonobos.
Gorillas are the biggest primates alive, attaining heights between 1.25 and 1.8 metres, body weights between 100 and 270 kilograms and arm spans up to 2.6 metres, basing on species and sex. They have a tendency of living in troops under the leadership of a silverback. The eastern gorilla is differentiated from the western by darker hair or fur colour and some other minor morphological dissimilarities. Gorillas tend to live between 35 to 40 years in the wild.
The natural habitats of gorillas cover tropical forests in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Even though their range occupy a small segment of Sub-Saharan Africa, gorillas cover a wide range of elevations. The mountain gorilla inhabits the Albertine Rift montane cloud forests of the Virunga Volcanoes, ranging in elevation from 2,200 to 4,300 metres (7,200 to 14,100 feet). Lowland gorillas inhabit the thick jungles and lowland marshlands and swamp lands as low as sea level, with western lowland gorillas existing in Central West African countries and eastern lowland gorillas living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo nearby its national boundary with Rwanda.
It is approximated that there are around 316,000 western gorillas in the wild and 5,000 eastern gorillas. Both gorilla species and types under each are categorized as Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN) is an global organization working in the area of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. All subspecies are branded as Critically Endangered apart from the mountain gorilla, which is considered as Endangered. There are voluminous dangers to survival of different types of gorillas including poaching, habitat destruction, and disease among others. Though, some conservation campaigns have yielded success in certain areas where they live.