Western Lowland Gorilla
by Deana Glenz
Title
Western Lowland Gorilla
Artist
Deana Glenz
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
The Western Lowland Gorilla is the smallest subspecies of gorilla. They possess no tails and have jet black skin along with coarse black hair that covers their entire body except for the face, ears, hands, and feet. The hair on the back and rump of males takes on a grey coloration and is also lost as they get progressively older. This coloration is the reason why older males are known as "silverbacks". Their hands are proportionately large with nails on all digits, similar to that of a human's, and very large thumbs. They have short muzzles, a prominent brow ridge, large nostrils, and small eyes and ears.
A male standing erect can be 5–6 feet tall and weigh 300–600 pounds. Western gorillas frequently stand upright, but walk in a hunched, quadrupedal fashion, with hands curled and knuckles touching the ground. This style of movement requires long arms, which works for western gorillas because the arm span of gorillas is larger than their standing height.
The western lowland gorilla lives in the forest and lowland swamps in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Uploaded
December 18th, 2015
Embed
Share
Comments
There are no comments for Western Lowland Gorilla. Click here to post the first comment.