Western Lowland Gorilla

Fun facts

• The most numerous of the four gorilla subspecies, but still Critically Endangered — wild populations have crashed by roughly 60% over the last three generations from Ebola and bushmeat hunting.
• An adult silverback is the strongest living primate, capable of bending iron bars; despite that, gorillas are almost entirely vegetarian, eating leaves, pith, and fruit.
• Each gorilla has a unique noseprint — the wrinkle pattern above the nostrils — and researchers use noseprint photo-ID to track wild individuals across decades.
• Gorillas build a fresh nest of folded branches every single night, ground-level for the heavier silverbacks and a few metres up in trees for lighter females and juveniles.
• DNA studies place gorillas as our second-closest living relatives after chimps and bonobos — about 98.4% of their genome is shared with ours.