Mountain gorillas are highly social animals who live in family groups, referred to as troops, led and protected by a dominant silverback. In studying mountain gorillas’ dental health, scientists have noted that while mountain gorillas rarely get teeth cavities (likely because fruits, which contain a lot of natural sugar, are not their primary food source), these great apes are prone to bad tartar, which can lead to periodontitis, ultimately causing the loss of teeth-and worse, deterioration of the gorillas’ jaw bones. During the rainy season, Virunga gorillas frequent bamboo forests, where they are able to find young shoots to snack on. Gorillas get their daily water requirement through the plants they eat. For example, the diversity of fruit trees is greater in the lower altitude range of Bwindi gorillas, so these gorillas eat more fruit than the Virunga population. Weather is another influencer upon mountain gorillas’ diet. Adult males consume up to 75 lb (34 kg) a day adult females consume up to 40 lb (18 kg) a day. Elevation varies the type of vegetation that the two subspecies eat. Less than 1 percent of its diet comes from insects. Mountain gorillas eat a mostly vegetarian diet that consists of leaves, stems, bark, shoots, roots, flowers, and fruit. (Population numbers reported by Reuters news, taken from a census conducted in 2018.) These great apes are one of two subspecies of the eastern gorilla, the other being Grauer’s gorilla, formerly known as the eastern lowland gorilla. With a home range consisting of several tropical vegetation zones, which include montane and bamboo forests, the aptly named mountain gorilla dwells at altitudes ranging from 7,200 to 14,100 ft (2,200–4,300 m) in Virunga and 4,921–7,550 ft (1,500–2,300 m) in Bwindi. More than half the population of our world’s mountain gorillas (604 individuals) resides high in the lush, dense cloud forests of the Virunga Mountains, a dormant volcanic range in central Africa that spans the borders of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The remainder of this population (400 individuals) lives 15 mi (24 km) north in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which encompasses southern Uganda and adjoining areas of the Congo. Habitat destruction and fragmentation has confined both populations of mountain gorillas to isolated patches of forest. GRIVET, MALBROUCK, TANTALUS, GREEN, AND VERVET MONKEYS.FOR TEACHERS: HOW NATURE WORKS LESSON 2.USING A DICHOTOMOUS KEY TO IDENTIFY PRIMATES: INTRODUCTION.10 OF THE MOST ENDANGERED PRIMATE SPECIES.10 PRIMATE SPECIES YOU PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF.10 OF THE MOST WELL-KNOWN PRIMATE SPECIES.LIFE IN THE WORLD’S TROPICAL RAINFOREST.THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING HABITAT: THE CANDY CULPRIT.THE ALPHABET SOUP OF CONSERVATION VIDEO AND INTRODUCTION.

Silverback gorilla height