Mountain Gorilla
All rights reserved.
No publication without written permission of the photographer.
Location: Rwanda
Photographer: © Pia Dierickx
The Mountain Gorilla has longer and darker hair than other gorilla species, allowing it to live in hot or cold weather and travel into areas where temperatures drop below 0 °C (32 °F).
Gorillas can be identified by nose prints unique to each individual. Males usually weigh twice as much as the females, and this subspecies is on average the largest of all gorillas. Adult males have more pronounced bony crests on the top and back of their skulls, giving their heads a more conical shape. These crests anchor the powerful masseter muscles, which attach to the lower jaw, or mandible. Adult females also have these crests, but they are less pronounced.
The Mountain Gorilla is primarily terrestrial and quadrupedal. However, it will climb into fruiting trees if the branches can carry its weight, and it is capable of running bipedally up to 6 m (20 ft). Like all great apes other than humans, its arms are longer than its legs. It moves by knuckle-walking supporting its weight on the backs of its curved fingers rather than its palms.
Adult males are called silverbacks because a saddle of gray or silver-colored hair develops on their backs with age. The hair on their backs is shorter than on most other body parts, and their arm hair is especially long. Upright, males reach 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) in height, with an arm span of 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) and weigh 155 kg (340 lb).
No publication without written permission of the photographer.
Location: Rwanda
Photographer: © Pia Dierickx
The Mountain Gorilla has longer and darker hair than other gorilla species, allowing it to live in hot or cold weather and travel into areas where temperatures drop below 0 °C (32 °F).
Gorillas can be identified by nose prints unique to each individual. Males usually weigh twice as much as the females, and this subspecies is on average the largest of all gorillas. Adult males have more pronounced bony crests on the top and back of their skulls, giving their heads a more conical shape. These crests anchor the powerful masseter muscles, which attach to the lower jaw, or mandible. Adult females also have these crests, but they are less pronounced.
The Mountain Gorilla is primarily terrestrial and quadrupedal. However, it will climb into fruiting trees if the branches can carry its weight, and it is capable of running bipedally up to 6 m (20 ft). Like all great apes other than humans, its arms are longer than its legs. It moves by knuckle-walking supporting its weight on the backs of its curved fingers rather than its palms.
Adult males are called silverbacks because a saddle of gray or silver-colored hair develops on their backs with age. The hair on their backs is shorter than on most other body parts, and their arm hair is especially long. Upright, males reach 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) in height, with an arm span of 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) and weigh 155 kg (340 lb).