Male Silver Back Gorilla example essay topic

The first recorded gorilla sighting (by western civilization) was in the 5th century B.C. by a Roman Explorer. Now every day nearly hundreds of gorillas disappear because of an unnatural death. This death is nothing mysterious, but is caused by poachers that trap these gorillas and kill them simply for their hands and sometimes even their heads. Besides that even construction and agriculture take the homes away from gorillas that were especially set aside.

For these reasons' gorillas are disappearing rapidly and must be taken care of. The western lowland gorilla is listed as an endangered species. Others are Eastern lowland, and Mountain Gorilla. A population of endangered gorillas living in a national park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has dropped fifty percent because of rebels, says the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society. Around the border of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, Kah uzi-Bie ga National park is now a battleground, with different rebel groups fighting in the area. Now many rebels and refugees living in the park's borders, bamboo is harvested and used for building materials, and hunt large amounts of wildlife for food and commercial trade.

Even the number of illegal snares has grown. It seems that for one reason or another people do not want to stop hunting for Apes or Gorillas. Man is gorillas only enemy. Because of the action of male gorillas protecting their groups with such determination from hunters, humans developed a folktale about the ferocity of gorillas. Gorillas' defense of standing and chest-beating make them a perfect target. Like all tightly knit social groups, gorillas will defend their young.

They defend them with their lives. Fights between gorillas rarely ever happen and are resolved through threatening gestures. If there is an intruder, the young and the female go to the safer ground. If the intruder runs away it will be caught and killed, but if it just stands there, it will not be harmed.

Gorillas are generally quiet. They are not actually capable of making the same sounds as human beings. They make about 15-25 different special noises. Hooting can carry a mile through the forest and is usually exchanged between rival silver backs.

A hooting sound is used for an alarm or to note and unusual event. Other calls are sharp grunts for giving discipline and low calls are used for moving to a new nestling area. When gorillas beat their chest, they are usually showing intimidation or a display of power. Even though these precious animals are being killed people still like visiting and seeing gorillas! An hour visit in Africa with gorillas costs about $120, with a maximum of six tourists visiting each habituated a gorilla group a day. It can take several hours to reach the gorillas through the dense, mountainous jungle.

Safaris start at $3,000. Tourism generates a great deal of money for Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire and helps protect other species as well as the gorilla. The physical characteristics of gorillas are: Height: Male's 5'6' upright, 4'6' normal stance. Females 5' upright, 3'6' - 4' normal stance. Weight: Males 300-500 lbs. Females 150-250 lbs.

Babies from one to three years weigh between 20-30 lbs. Arm Span: Up to 9'2' (one male specimen). Color: Black or brown-gray fur with black skin on chests, palms and faces. Red heads are common in Cameroon gorillas especially.

Males develop a silver back as they mature. Stance: Gorillas are quadrupedal. They walk on all fours with the soles of their feet flat on the ground and the knuckles of the hands curled and planted on the ground. Recognition: Gorillas recognize each other by their faces and body shapes. Each gorilla has a unique nose print. The Social-Structure of gorillas are that gorillas live in groups of 3-30.

A typical group consists of one silver back, one immature silver back, one immature male, three to four adult females, and three to six little young gorillas less than eight years old. A female will usually transfer to another group, especially if the silver back is her father and there are no other suitable males to mate with. Adult males usually leave after sexual maturity and start their own group or join other lonely males or "bachelors". Gorillas live mainly in coastal West Africa in the Congo, Zaire, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon. Gorillas live in the rain forest. They usually live on the ground but build nests in trees to sleep in.

Gorilla troops have to stay away from them with a 15-20 square mile range that most of the time overlaps the range of other troops. Gorillas are herbivores and eat only wild celery, roots, tree bark pulp, fruit stems of many plants and baboo shots. They spend almost half the entire day eating. Gorillas also spend their time in trees. Research is still going on for gorillas being able to speak sign language! (1) Koko, a female lowland gorilla born in 1971, and Michael, a male lowland gorilla born in 1973, use sign language and understand spoken English.

Koko's participation in this study began when she was one year old, and Michael's at the age of three and one-half. Their intellectual, physical, and linguistic development have been studied extensively since their infancy. Before Project Koko, very little was known about gorilla intelligence. During the course of the study, Koko has advanced further with language than any other nonhuman.

Koko has a working vocabulary of more than 1000 signs. Koko understands approximately 2,000 words of spoken English. Koko initiates the majority of conversations with her human companions and typically constructs statements averaging three to six words. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale, where 100 is considered 'normal. ' Michael, the male silver back gorilla who grew up with Koko, had a working vocabulary of more than 600 signs. The way you can help keep gorillas from becoming extinct is that you can deny any gorilla parts that are being sold to you and report them to the authorities, donate money to the Gorilla Foundation at web or to the zoo nearest you.

The extinctions of these animals are in great danger. Just by simply destroying the forest, we are also destroying the habitats of smart gorillas. Because of human caused disorders and disasters, gorillas will not live for ever. Common Name Gorilla Scientific Name Gorilla Gorilla Order PrimataFamily PongidaeGenus Gorilla Class Mammalia.