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Western Springs Personal Trainer - Personal Fitness Training In Western... achieve-fitness.com | Gorilla scsadiagnostics.com | Spalding Gorilla Front Mount Goal americanfitness.net | Vegetarian Gorillas scientificpsychic.com |
The Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) is a great ape and the most populous species of the genus Gorilla.
[edit] TaxonomyNearly all of the individuals of this taxon belong to the Western Lowland Gorilla subspecies (G. g. gorilla) whose population is approximately 350,000 individuals (as per survey results Aug 5, 2008)[citation needed]. There are fewer than 300 of the only other Western Gorilla subspecies, the Cross River Gorilla (G. g. diehli).[3] [edit] AppearanceThe Western Gorilla is lighter in color than its Eastern cousin. The Western Lowland Gorilla can be brown or greyish with a yellowish forehead. It also has an overhanging tip on its nose, which the Eastern Gorilla doesn't have. Males measure 170–183 cm and weigh 140–278 kg. Females measure 140–155 cm and weigh 60–120 kg. The Western Gorilla is more slender then the Eastern Gorilla. The Cross River Gorilla differs from the Western Lowland Gorilla in both skull and tooth dimensions. It is also about 10–15 cm taller and 20–35 kg heavier. [edit] OverviewThe Western Gorilla is an agile climber and is more arboreal than the Eastern Gorilla. It is also more frugivorous and will eat fleshy fruits of almost 100 seasonally fruiting tree species. The Western Gorilla is more difficult to track and study. The Western Lowland Gorilla subspecies has a small family group compared to other gorillas, averaging 4-8 members. Wild Western Gorillas are known to use tools.[4] [edit] StatusThe World Conservation Union lists the Western Gorilla as critically endangered, the most severe denomination next to global extinction, on its 2007 Red List of Threatened Species. It is thought that the Ebola virus might be depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it might become impossible for them to recover.[2] In the 1980s, a census taken of the gorilla populations in equatorial Africa was thought to be 100,000.[5] Researchers adjusted the figure after years of poaching and deforestation had reduced the population to approximately 50,000.[5] Surveys conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society in 2006 and 2007 found more than 100,000 previously unreported gorillas have been living in the swamp forests of Lake Tele Community Reserve and in neighbouring Marantaceae (dryland) forests in the Republic of the Congo.[5] With the new discovery, the current population of Western Lowland Gorillas could be around 150,000–200,000. However, the gorilla remains vulnerable to Ebola, deforestation, and poaching.[5] Estimates on the number of Cross River Gorillas remaining is about 280 in the wild, concentrated in approximately 11 locations. Recent genetic research[6] and field surveys suggest that these locations are linked by the occasional migration of individual gorillas. The nearest population of Western Lowland Gorilla is some 250 km away. Both loss of habitat and intense hunting for bushmeat have contributed to the decline of this subspecies. A conservation plan for the Cross River gorilla was published in 2007 and outlines the most important actions necessary to preserve this subspecies.[7] Richard Black of the BBC has reported[8] that the government of Cameroon has created the Takamanda National Park on the border with Nigeria, as an attempt to protect these Gorillas. The park now forms part of an important trans-boundary protected area with Nigeria’s Cross River National Park, safeguarding an estimated 115 gorillas—a third of the Cross River gorilla population—along with other rare species.[9] The hope is that the gorillas should be able to move between the Takamanda reserve in Cameroon over the border to Nigeria's Cross River National Park. [edit] 2008 DiscoveryIn mid 2008, researchers discovered as many as 125,000 previously-undiscovered Gorillas in the Republic of Congo. This discovery could more than double the known population of the animals, though the effect that the discovery will have on the Gorillas' conservation status is currently unknown.[10] [edit] References
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