Information on Gorillas By: Kyle Quednow

Hair and Skin: Gorillas are covered with brownish hair on most of their body (except their fingers, palms, face, armpits, and bottoms of their feet). The Head: Gorillas have a very large head with a bulging forehead, a crest on top (it is called the sagittal crest, and is larger on male gorillas), tiny ears, and small, dark-brown eyes. Gorillas have no tail. Adult gorillas have 32 teeth, with large molars (flat teeth used for chewing food) and large canines (pointy teeth used for biting), which are especially large in the male gorillas. Gorillas each have a unique nose print (like we have unique fingerprints). Senses: Gorillas have senses very similar to ours, including hearing, sight (they seem to be slightly nearsighted and to have color vision), smell, taste, and touch. Hands and Feet: Gorillas' hands are very much like ours; they have five fingers, including an imposable thumb. Their feet have five toes, including an imposable big toe. Gorillas can grasp things with both their hands and their feet.

There are three sub-species of gorillas: Western Lowland Gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). These are the kinds you see in zoos today. They are the smallest of the sub-species with short blackish hair (sometimes reddish brown on the head) and live mainly in forested areas of the Central African Republic, the Congo, Cameroon and Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. Eastern Lowland Gorillas (gorilla gorilla graueri). There are currently 4 Eastern Lowland gorillas in captivity; three at the zoo in Antwerp, Belgium, and one in Houston, TX. The have a narrower face and broader chest than the western lowland gorillas and shorter hair like their western cousins, but they are slightly larger. They live mostly in eastern Zaire. Mountain Gorillas (gorilla gorilla beringei). There are NO mountain gorillas in captivity today. These are the largest, gorillas with the longest hair (to keep them warm in their cooler mountainous habitat!). These are also the rarest gorillas, which Dian Fossey and many other scientists studied in Rwanda; they also live in Uganda and eastern Zaire.

The End http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/a pes/gorilla/ http://www.austinpost.org/content/gorillas- are-coming http://www.gorilla-haven.org/ghfunfacts.htm