How strong is a Gorilla?

If you were to organize a battle grandiose for the strongest Great Apes, a gorilla would most likely take the weight-lifting belt, thanks to its massive weight that makes it possible to lift an object ten times its weight. The question now is how strong is a gorilla? How much weight can it lift, what’s a gorilla’s bite strength and what’s its strength compared to a human being? If you have such questions, then you are at the right place.

Gorillas are the World’s largest and obviously strongest Great Apes living in the African jungles. These creatures weigh up to about 350 kilograms. However, doesn’t their strength match their massive size? At first sight, you will be amazed by these Great Apes’ muscular build that would interestingly suggest their tremendous strength but the question is; how strong are they? This post will offer an understanding of their strength and how they are able to maintain their huge size.

Most of the gorilla’s strength is accredited to its massive body size. A silverback gorilla (mature male) weighs between 135 and 225 kilograms while the female weighs between 80 and 100 kilograms. This makes them the largest Great Apes and it would interest you to know that they are capable of lifting objects ten times their body weight. For instance, if the silverback gorilla weighs 181 kilogram, chances are that he will lift upwards of about 1810 kilograms. It is said that an average male is capable of lifting an object at least 0.87 times its body weight and this makes gorilla remarkable and worth discovering. However, given the absence of information on the real strength of gorillas, these figures are just assumptions because no one has ever organized competitions to test animal strength.  However, it is believed that gorillas are 6 times stronger than humans and surprisingly have bite strength of 1300 Pounds per Square Inch (PSI) compared to a lion’s 650 Pounds per Square Inch, hyena’s 1100 Pounds per Square Inch and human being’s 162 Pounds per Square Inch.

What foods do gorillas eat to become strong?

You would think that gorillas ingest a lot of meat to power their massive size and enormous strength. Surprisingly, they are primarily herbivores and their diet mainly comprises of leaves, fruits, stems, celery, tree barks, shoots and pith of many plant species. However, the plant materials that these Great Apes consume are generally low on nutrients thus they have to eat large quantities to meet their dietary needs. Also, they supplement their diet by eating invertebrates such as termites, ants, snails and many others.

Besides the gorillas, there are a number of strong land animals worth discovering during safaris and they include Elephants that can carry 9000 kilograms on their 800 kilograms weight, tigers that are capable of lifting objects twice their weight, Eagles (the strongest bird) capable of lifting objects four times their weight, the Rhinoceros Beetles that can surprisingly carry objects 850 times their body weight and the Dung beetles that takes the award for strongest animals. These creatures are able to push objects 1140 times their body weight.               Now that’s remarkable strength.

The ideal time to see gorillas in the wild

For primate lovers and gorilla trekkers, the ideal time to see these Great Apes in the wild is the dry season-months of June to September and December to February when forest conditions are generally favorable. Even the hiking trails and Park roads are drier hence less challenging for you to explore but birders will relish jaw-dropping sighting of extraordinary birdlife in the rainy season when flowers are blooming all over the jungles and it is also perfect for photographers because vegetation is greener and the sky has been cleared of dust.