Baby Gorillas: Interesting Facts You Ought to Know

World over, the mountain gorillas are adored and any primate lover would be interested in knowing a thing or two about them, their existence and interesting facts about their young ones. These Great Apes are special because they live in few African countries and trekking them is limited to a few people.

The following are the interesting facts you ought to know about baby gorillas, and be sure for your mind to be blown;

A newborn gorilla is so small (even smaller than a human babies) and fragile, usually weighing between 1.4 and 1.8 kilograms. This is interestingly just half the average weight of a human baby. Surprisingly, these Great Apes grow faster and reach sexual maturity by 10 years for females and 13 years for the males. Not only that, an adult gorilla weighs almost twice what an average human being weighs. A mature female gorilla’s weight ranges from 90 to 113 kilograms while for a male gorilla is between 135 and 220 kilogram.

Close physical contacts are maintained with mothers for five to six months

Mothers keep close physical contact with baby gorillas for the first five to six months of birth and this is done to ensure safety of the weak and defenseless babies in addition to watching their tracks as they actively go about foraging, playing or moving and providing the much needed comfort during its early stages of life. Baby gorillas normally begin manipulating objects and discovering their surrounding by three months old. On making 8 months, these babies will be walking as well as discovering within a few meters from the mother. With age, they become braver and more independent to the point of ranging farther in the company of their older siblings.

Mothers are the primary caregivers but always receives help raising babies

The phrase “it takes a village to raise a child” also applies to the gorillas because mothers are their primary caregivers but other juveniles offer help from time to time. These babies will stay in close proximity with their mothers, even sharing close relationships for the first 1-3 years. Mothers are generally protective of their young ones and for gorillas, she will try as much as possible to keep away other curious gorillas from getting closer to the infant.

Baby gorillas usually don’t know their biological fathers

Gorillas in Bwindi National Park

While researchers can ascertain gorilla paternity through genetic analysis as well as observations, the babies don’t know who their fathers are. This has been attributed to a number of reasons that include the fact that gorilla families normally have numerous silverbacks that have possibly mated with the mother, or the fact that the gorilla’s mother moved from another gorilla family. Studies have discovered that baby gorillas even prefer spending time and interacting more with other silverbacks other than their biological fathers. It is here that the assumption of baby gorillas not knowing their biological fathers was further supported.

Silverbacks are a wonderful to help in offering care to baby gorillas

Baby gorillas obviously don’t know their real fathers, but adult males also surprisingly don’t know their offsprings. A case in point is Silverback Cantsbee (one of gorillas studied and named by Dian Fossey) was always referred as “babysitter” for 5 to 6 baby gorillas as their mothers were foraging. It was also discovered that blackbacks that have tendencies of spending a lot of time playing with infants as well as juveniles have greater chances of fathering babies on reaching adulthood.

Baby gorillas can hum and sing to show satisfaction

Have you ever enjoyed your favorite meal to the point of humming and singing? This is what sometimes happens with baby gorillas. These adorable creatures have been discovered to hum and sing to show satisfaction, especially after enjoying the food they like. This behavior is also common among adult gorillas.

There are cases of twin babies among gorillas

Like humans, there are exceptional cases of twin babies among gorillas, although are very rare. The general gestation period of gorillas is 8.5 months and these Great Apes usually give birth after every three to four years, thus likely to have up to 6 babies in a lifetime. However, this is higher in male gorillas that are likely to sire up to 20 infants in a lifetime.