WESTERN LOWLAND GORILA

Image: animalstime.com

 The western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) is one of two subspecies of the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) that lives in montane, primary, and secondary forests and lowland swamps in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the gorilla most often found in zoos.The western lowland gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla but nevertheless still a primate of exceptional size and strength. This species of gorillas exhibits pronounced sexual dimorphism. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with coarse black hair that covers their entire body except for the face, ears, hands, and feet. The hair on the back and rump of males takes on a grey coloration and is also lost as they get progressively older. This coloration is the reason why older males are known as "silverbacks". Their hands are proportionately large with nails on all digits, similar to that of a human's, and very large thumbs. They have short muzzles, a prominent brow ridge, large nostrils, and small eyes and ears. Other features are large muscles in the jaw region along with broad and strong teeth.

The western lowland gorilla population in the wild is faced by a number of factors that threaten its extinction.

1. bushmeat hunting.
 

2. Infertility - Generally, female gorillas mature at 10–12 years of age (or earlier at 7–8 years) and their male counterparts mature slower, rarely strong and dominant enough to reproduce before 15–20 years of age. The fecundity of females, or capacity of producing young in great numbers, appears to decline by the age of 18. Of one half of captive females of viable reproductive age, approximately only 30% of those had only a single birth. The long, narrow, bony pelvis of the great apes, which further contributes to the potentially long distance from the apex of the vagina to the ovaries and therefore decreases the chance of successful fertilization

3. Expanding human settlements - the expansion of human causes animals to lose their land and their food thereby leading to their extinction.