What Do Gorillas Eat : Mountain gorillas are the attractive giant of pes that are the closet to human beings that can be seen on an African safari in the unique destinations like Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorillas are the giants and most of the times the travelers wonder what these creatures do eat that makes them so strong. The gorilla’s diet majorly consists of the plant materials like the stems, buds, leaves, barks and piths and among others. At times the gorillas feed on the fruits but due to the fact that the gorillas they do inhabit in the high altitude areas, fruit trees are limited and thus the fruits do contribute little percentage on their diet.
Gorillas at a high extent their diet is full of the leaves, buds, stems, seed that can be got from the edible plant species. And these species can supplement their diet with the roots, flowers and at times inverterbrates.These creatures do not mostly drink water that is the large portion of their diet can be the fresh leaves that sufficiently hydrated already. And another thing is since they live in the high altitude area the temperatures can be low and the gorilla’s body does not lose much heat during sweating.
Mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable forest national park and the lowland areas of Kahuzi Beiga national park are herbivores. They do feed a lot as to sustain their lives, for example the mountain gorillas can take 142 plant species, from the stems, shoots, leaves which collects over 86% for their diet, where 7% diet can be composed of the edible roots, then 3 percent flowers and the least percentage can be from the fruits. And at times the mountain gorillas are times do feed on the ants, snails, grubs and others that adds 2% of their diet.
How gorillas collect their food.
Mountain gorillas being the largest and the strongest primates. These creatures are strong and they use their strength to break the vegetation they come across in order to eat their interested part of the vegetation. Gorillas are such impressive and important in their ecological niche as these do their favorite selection and they do not complete their vegetation in the area they feed from. These feed as they constantly rotating from an area to another that gives the regrowth of the vegetation, in a simple way the feeding habits of the gorillas allows the quick replenishment to take place.
The gorillas are selective forages, these eat as they are selecting their best choice of different parts of plants, and for example at times you might find that on a certain plant they consume only one part like the roots, leaves, stems or the fruit.
How much do gorillas eat?
In gorillas the adult gorilla can consume 20 kilograms of food on a daily basis. This is because their body size being large they as well need more food to produce the energy that they use. The vegetation they take can be too succulent and gives them water for survival.Thats why at a certain extent the gorillas do not take water. And gorillas being the herbivores they feed on the leaves, roots, stems, buds and others. The eat large quantities of these foods as to generate them with much energy for survival.
On the side of the silver back gorilla, this is twice in terms of size than the female gorillas as it eats more food than a female and hence that provides the silverback with more energy. A silver back takes a certain amount of food equally to 27 kilograms of food daily on an estimated measurement. For the case of the newly born gorilla babies they can be cared by their mothers for about 2.5 years to 3 years. These grow as they are beginning eating the plant parts on their own.
Gorillas’ eating habits.
Gorillas spend the long day searching for food. These leave their last night sleeping nests in the morning and move around the forest as they are looking and the resting place. This is where the silverback gorilla leads the family to a perfect spot with enough food that they are going to eat on that day. Gorillas eat two times a day that is morning and evening. And during the period between the two meals the adult gorilla takes a rest as the young ones play around with one another. Each gorilla family feeds on its own ‘zone’ and entering in another group’s territory is rare and can lead to fights as the silverback protects his own family.
On a larger extent the gorillas feed on the common vegetation that includes the Solanum, Teclea Nobilis, Symphonia, Desmodium repandum, Rapanea Melanophloeos, Olea capense, Ganodarma, Chrysophyllum and among others.
Plan and carry out a fantastic gorilla trekking safari on a Uganda, Democratic republic of Congo and Rwanda safari where you will experience some of the ways how the gorillas eat, with the help of the local guides that show you and explain the various importance of acertain plant species that a gorilla eats, and at times these species are medicinal to the gorillas.
