Mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park, province of North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
By the last count in 2018, there were 1004 mountain gorillas left in the wild, all of them located in the Virunga Mountains, which are divided between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. About half of them are located in Virunga National Park in Congo. While in Rwanda and Uganda there is very developed high end (top dollar) tourist industry that brings tourists to their national parks for gorilla safaris, in Congo the situation is quite different. Because of a conflict that has brought numerous armed groups to this part of Congo, there are very few tourists visiting this area, so the place is still true African wilderness, the wild heart of a continent. Mountain gorillas in Virunga inhabit cloud forests ranging in altitude from 2100 to 4200 meters. Since it can get cold at these altitudes, mountain gorillas have longer fur than their lowland cousins. Males weigh about 200 kg and have average upright standing height of 170 cm. The biggest ever recorded specimen was 206 cm in height and weighted 218 kg. Females weigh about 100 kg on average. Their life is extremely simple; they get up at around 6am, and then they eat for about 4 hours, until about 10am. Then they rest for 4 hours and eat again from 2pm to the dark. Then they make up their nests and go to sleep for 12 hours straight. Since they eat mostly leaves, which are poor in nutritional value, they must eat a lot of it to gain necessary nutrients, up to 30 kg per day. They eat slowly and chew thoroughly. They fart constantly. I was standing in the middle of a group of about 12 to 15 gorillas, listening a farting concert. Young ones would come quite close to us (there were only 2 visitors to the park that day, one American girl and myself), while adults were a little bit shy. The shiest of them all was the group undisputed leader - big silverback. Adult males are called silverbacks, because the fur on their backs gets greyish - white as they reach adulthood. They live in stable groups of 5 to 30 individuals.
Size: 5475px × 3627px
Location: Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Photo credit: © Dordo Brnobic / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: africa, ape, congo, democratic, gorilla, gorillas, jungle, kivu, monkey, mountain, mountains, national, north, park, primate, republic, virunga, virungas
