The silverback
A grown male is called a silverback, after the silver-grey hair on his back. He leads and protects the family.
African rainforest
Western lowland gorilla
Gorilla gorilla gorilla
The largest of the apes: black-haired and broad-shouldered. Grown males have a saddle of silver hair across the back.
- Size
- Males up to 1.7m tall standing, and about 170kg
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Lowland rainforest of central Africa
Knuckle-walks after you, stopping to look round. Move your pointer and see.
When to look
Gorilla
Good to know
Six things about the gorilla
On its knuckles
A gorilla walks on all fours, taking its weight on the knuckles of its hands.
Mostly plants
Gorillas eat leaves, stems and fruit, and a big male can eat about 18 kilograms in a day.
A new bed every night
Each gorilla builds a fresh nest of leaves and branches to sleep in every evening.
Chest beating
A silverback beats his chest with cupped hands. The sound carries a long way and tells others how big he is.
Critically endangered
Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, from hunting, disease and the loss of their forest.
The real thing
Photos of the gorilla
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Photos are from Wikimedia Commons, used under the free licences shown. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews.
How to spot one
Very few people see a wild lowland gorilla. Signs include sleeping nests of bent-over plants, chewed stems and knuckle prints in soft ground.
How to help
Support gorilla charities, and recycle old mobile phones: mining for the metals in them is destroying gorilla forest.
Keep going
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