The Endangered Cross River Gorilla

The Gorilla beringei beringei or mountain gorilla, was first discovered on October 17th 1902, by a German officer named Captain Robert von Beringe (Berggorilla and Direkthilfe, 2002). Mountain gorillas play a large role in it’s particular ecosystem through consumption the gorillas control and maintain vegetation that is vital for a healthy environment not only for the primate but also other species that live in the environment as well. Since the discovery of the mountain gorilla much fascination has been drawn toward the species. However, the gentle creature’s population has had a sharp decline from Rwanda’s belief in sumu, poaching, human disease, and unregulated tourism. In efforts to revive the species population from extinction, persistent activism through worldly foundations are helping protect the mountain gorilla species.

After about 10 minutes, he is abruptly bothered by the youngster who is running on his knuckles towards the male and runs back up the hill as if he is taunting him. The youngster does it about 3 mores times within the next 7 minutes and perches upon the hill in the same position as the silverback, except he is bended at the knees in squat position. In my second visit, I return to the gorilla exhibit for about 10 minutes to see a female unknown if related to the previous observation in submission. She is found crouched to the floor with her elbows on the ground and hands extended out and her butt perched up. Her hind legs are also bent and position to help support her butt. Three minutes upon observation, a silverback male comes running on his knuckles from another part of the exhibit and mounts the female. He positions himself on his knuckles to provide him support and continues with the sexual intercourse, in which I conclude my observations.

Gorillas are similar to humans in many different ways, such as sadness and laughter and also have hands just like a human. Some gorillas even know sign language when speaking to one another. They show over 20 known sounds, and other gorillas recognize them. It takes a very long time to build their trust as well. “Their DNA is 98.3% identical to a humans.” (Lewis, et.al, 2008) Reproduction for gorillas is also another feature just like humans, it is a slow procedure. It takes about 8 and a half months for a single gorilla to be produced, even though the process is slow the growing of a young gorilla is more rapid than a humans. They raise the infant gorilla for several years before giving birth to another baby. As many as 40% do not survive after birth. Male infants usually splits from the parents due to the lack of breeding chances.

This book was about the life of apes in their natural habitat that is being destroyed. Stanford highly pushed the idea of extinction and what people are doing to the apes. Stanford explains the threats to the ape's survival and tells us ideas that could help stop or slow down the decline of the ape population. He tells us about the complex cultural, social, economic and

Primate conservation has long been a topic of debate, reliant most heavily on the struggle to provide the necessary resources to combat the declining rate of population growth among various species. Orangutans in particular, both Sumatran and Bornean, have experienced a rapid drop in their free-living populations. With an estimate of only 27,000 left in the wild, questions have been raised over what selective pressures are impacting the steady decline of these animals existence. While hunting and poaching have been identified as contributing factors, habitat loss primarily takes center stage in their demise. Conservation efforts have been made and continue to be somewhat successful, however, challenges and set backs continue to threaten

This paper aims to study the traits of non-human primates. By observing two types of primates including Common Squirrel Monkey (Saimiri sciureus) and Western Gorillas (Gorilla Gorillas), I try to find out their characteristics, pattern of their behavior, and differences between these two primate species. Especially, characteristics and behavior such as social interaction, food acquisition and intelligence will be discussed and compared in this paper. In order to enhance the persuasiveness of my observation, I recorded and examined at least 25 distinct characteristics of both Common Squirrel Monkeys and Western Gorillas. It is also helpful for me to compare these two primates. Apart from exploring the primates’ traits and differentiation between them, this paper will discuss the effects of captivity. How being in captivity and on display in a zoo would influence their behaviors and emotions? The observation was a great success and I have successfully derived with a hypothesis base on our observing data. The ultimate goal of this paper is arousing humans’ awareness of the importance of studying primates.

There are many wild animals in the world are in danger. The mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are one of the most threatened species in the world that inherited from monkeys (Macaca Fascicularis) and apes (Hominoidea), which was found in Africa and Arabia about 34-24 millions years ago. Mountain gorillas are Animalia, which phylum is Chordata and class of Mammalia. The mountain gorilla is a subspecies of eastern gorilla, which live in two regions in Africa. There are three countries where mountain gorillas live. They are Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. According to National geographic, there are about 700 mountain gorillas remaining in the earth and half of them live in a Virunga mountains in central Africa. In average, they live about 35 years; the standing height of a mountain gorilla is between 4-6 feet. They’re weight usually between 300-485 pounds and they are bit larger than other type of gorillas. Mountain gorilla usually live in a group and head of their group is called ‘silverback’ that is an adult male who grow a patch of silver hair on their back and hips. However, when dominant silverback die, the whole group face hard time to regroup themselves. Female gorilla usually becomes sexually mature before male gorilla. At the age of 7-8 female gorillas become sexually active, however they started to breed few years later. On the other hand, male gorilla starts

I observed a type of Ape known as the Western Lowland Gorilla. The scientific name for a Gorilla is the Gorilla gorilla. Gorillas are the largest of all living primates and at native to west central Africa. Gorillas exhibit sexual dimorphism within their species because males are very obviously much larger than females. The size of the gorillas came across very intimating and gave me an off impression of what this specie was actually going to be like. While observing the gorillas I noticed that these creatures are very slow, lethargic primates. Gorillas move quadrupedally by putting weight down on their arms and knuckles as they walk. They have hands and opposable thumbs, like humans, and are able to grasp things with a better grip. When Gorillas need to reach above themselves such as for leaves or branches they are able to stand on both legs while reaching. While resting Gorillas sit on their bottoms, legs to the side in a similar position that humans do. When resting I noticed that sometimes Gorillas like to take advantage of the moment by self grooming, using their hands. Gorillas usually have an herbivore diet but eat occasional insects. Due to their large body structure it is harder for them move around quickly so they do not need to eat foods that contain as much nutrients and proteins as smaller,

The teeth of a gorilla have high crests that are used to help break down leaves that make up a large proportion of their diet. This species has relatively long forelimbs and short hindlimbs. The gorillas have a short trunk and wide pelvis. Individual gorillas can be distinguished from the nose; each gorilla has a unique nose pattern, like the human fingerprint.

During my research of Orangutans and Mandrills I observed them in captivity at the San Diego Zoo. My observations included a 20 minute observation of each primate as it cohabitated with other Primates and with other members of its own species. My findings will support the research of Orangutans and Mandrills through firsthand observations.

The Jane Goodall Institute website provides information about the projects regarding the protection of chimpanzees and other primates. Based on the institute’s initiative to protect the primates by providing education to the community, supporting sanctuaries, and working with law enforcements (website JGI). Furthermore, the information provided on the program Roots & Shoots points out a guide to those interested in helping the wild life, and provides aid to elaborate new plans to help the primates. The first step is to acknowledge the problem, in this case is finding a way to protect the chimpanzees. Second, to elaborate a pan, the JGI conservation program uses technology such as cloud computing and remote sensing to provide up to date information on the

On Friday, March 31, a observation study was conducted at the L.A. Zoo. The time of arrival for the observation was at 11:48 am and the end of the observation was at 2:42 pm. The weather condition at the zoo was very sunny with a mild gust of wind every so often, which is a perfect weather condition to conduct a study. The main reason for conducting this observation study was to study and gather information about the many different types of primate that are located at the zoo. To see how different or similar each primate is to one anotherin different aspects.

Kavanagh, M. & Morris, D. (1983). Complete guide to monkeys, apes and other primates. London: Viking Press.

I decided to look at the sexual behavior of bonobos because they are known for their frequent sexual behavior. Though they are not one of the types of great apes mentioned in the book, a bonobo is nonetheless a great ape that belongs in the same genus as the common chimpanzee. Furuichi et al. observed bonobos in their naturalistic habitat in Wamba, Democratic Republic

The researched showed that gorillas in the volcanic region of the Virunga Park in the eastern Democratic Replublic of the Congo, Africa, kill the babies because the resources and the place where they live influence this behavior among them. However, there are many extensive factors in the incident of infanticide among these gorillas. Report of gorillas killing the babies was analyzed inside the park, what the scientist discovered, mostly all the victims were in the lactation stage. In addition that, the culprits were gorillas that did not belong the clan were the killings happened. When lactating, baby gorillas are most vulnerable and very dependent, if it happens that the dominant male of the group where the babies belong is not present, is