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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 25, 2021 5:42:47 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Oct 30, 2021 15:10:39 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Nov 11, 2021 19:08:51 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Nov 19, 2021 9:01:51 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Nov 27, 2021 10:57:31 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Nov 29, 2021 6:19:55 GMT -5
Rwandan mountain gorillas a rare conservation success
Mountain gorilla tourism in Rwanda is helping the country, its people and the animals themselves, reports Lesley Stahl on Sunday's 60 Minutes. Once dwindling in numbers, mountain gorillas are the only great ape whose numbers are now on the rise, attracting well-heeled tourists and boosting the local economy. Stahl went to the mountains of Rwanda to see the mountain gorillas and report on their economic impact for a story to be broadcast on 60 Minutes, Sunday, November 28 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
When Dian Fossey first arrived in Rwanda in the late 1960s to study mountain gorillas in their native habitat, they were considered dangerous creatures, hunted by poachers who sold their body parts as trophies. Fossey's scientific research and her appearances in National Geographic helped people see gorillas as the gentle giants they actually are and sparked a surge in interest to see the animals up close. Primatologist Tara Stoinski heads the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, a non-profit science and conservation organization. She says that in the decades since Fossey's work was published, the mountain gorillas have become a critical economic engine for Rwanda.
"One of, if not the top source, of foreign revenue, is tourism to see the gorillas. For the whole country," says Stoinski.
The key to the gorillas' success is what Stoinski and the Rwandan government call "extreme conservation." Today, gorilla poaching in Rwanda has been eradicated. Instead, every gorilla family in the park is carefully monitored by researchers and trackers, 365 days a year.
But perhaps the most surprising element of "extreme conservation" is the role played by tourists. Each day, visitors pay $1,500 per person to trek up the volcano to spend just one hour with the gorillas. Stahl and 60 Minutes cameras went on one of the tours, climbing high into the mountains and observing the apes in their habitat. The gorilla treks are operated by the Rwandan government, which shares 10% of the revenue with the communities that surround the national parks. The districts themselves choose how to spend the money — on schools, infrastructure and other essentials to improve their lives.
In addition to the steep trekking fees, affluent tourists boost the local economy in other important ways. Jobs for porters and guides—including some who were former poachers—have flourished, as have jobs at the luxurious, high end hotels that have opened near the park.
Mountain gorillas once numbered just 254 in the Virunga mountains, but today they are up to over 600, with another 400 in neighboring Uganda. They still face dangers, including getting trapped in snares set for smaller animals like antelopes. But overall, things are moving in the right direction, says Stoinski. "It is a success story, definitely, but we say it's a fragile success because there are so few of them left and there are still so many threats."
www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/rwanda-gorillas-60-minutes-2021-11-23/
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Post by Gorilla king on Dec 7, 2021 21:15:07 GMT -5
Why Are Chimpanzees and Gorillas Suddenly Going to War?
An interspecies primate war may be unfolding before our eyes.
It's truly a wild time in the animal kingdom! Chimpanzees and gorillas have coexisted peacefully for many years, but in February of 2019 researchers were shocked to witness a vicious act of violence in Gabon's Loango National Park.
The researchers, from Osnabrück University and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, were studying the behavior of the chimpanzees in the national park when they observed more than two dozen attack five unprovoked western lowland gorillas (one silverback, three adult females and an infant). The near hour-long fight between the two groups cost the life of the infant gorilla, which was captured and beaten to death by the chimpanzees.
It was even more shocking when the traumatizing event repeated itself in December of that year, in the same park in Central Africa. This time, 27 chimpanzees went up against seven gorillas in a fight that lasted about 79 minutes and resulted in another helpless infant gorilla being killed. It's unclear whether the same chimpanzees were also involved in the first incident. Regardless, the question of what caused these ruthless attacks remains. To get to the bottom of it, let's take a look at the rich history and relationship of these two species.
An Interspecies Relationship Gone Sour
There's so much terminology out there to classify gorillas and chimpanzees — ape, primate, great ape, monkey — that things can get confusing. Let's keep it simple. Both gorillas and chimpanzees are primates, a biological order of species that includes humans.
Gorillas are the largest living primates, but don't let that fool you. These animals have been nicknamed "gentle giants" and typically live and move in small groups. The silverback, an adult male gorilla, leads the pack. Western lowland gorillas, a subspecies, primarily occupy the tropical rainforests of Central Africa, including in Loango National Park. The adult males in this region weigh an average of 300 pounds and can stand up to 6 feet tall. The adult females weigh an average of 150 to 200 pounds and stand up to 4.5 feet tall.
Chimpanzees aren't much different. Like gorillas, they occupy much of the tropical jungles in Africa, including Loango, and feed on similar items such as plants, fruits or insects. Chimps are typically between 3 to 5.5 feet tall when standing upright. Males can weigh up to 154 pounds, while females can weigh 110 pounds.
However, unlike their peace-loving primate relative, aggression and violence is inherent among chimpanzees. In fact, male chimpanzees are often known to attack one another over territorial disputes. Research has shown chimp-on-chimp violence to be fairly common, suggesting that chimpanzees are predisposed to murder. A likely explanation may be that new territory often means more food and resources that may be scarce in certain regions.
Yet, most of the aggression chimpanzees demonstrate has been directed to their own kind. Given the commonalities among chimpanzees and gorillas, the two primate species have been splitting territory, food and other resources peacefully for years. According to Simone Pika, a cognitive biologist at Osnabrück University, the two species have been regularly observed interacting peacefully in foraging trees and even playing with one another. However, the brutal attacks that took place in 2019 indicate that tension may be on the rise between the two groups.
Gorilla Warfare
They say sharing is caring — and many species in the animal kingdom abide by that rule. But what happens when livelihood is threatened?
According to a new study conducted by the researchers who observed the violent encounters, competition over limited resources may have been a driving factor. With climate change on the rise and a decrease in fruit availability in Loango, the instinct observed in chimpanzees to fight over food and territory may have kicked in and incited the cruel acts.
But why did the chimpanzees kill the infant gorillas? And will the violence continue? These questions remain unanswered. “We are only at the beginning to understand the effects of competition on interactions between the two species in Loango," Pika said in a press release. Regardless of the underlying reason, it is safe to say that we must keep a watchful eye — lest we have a full-blown interspecies primate war on our hands.
www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/why-are-chimpanzees-and-gorillas-suddenly-going-to-war
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Post by Gorilla king on Dec 10, 2021 6:52:38 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Dec 17, 2021 14:53:04 GMT -5
Ancient giant orangutans evolved smaller bodies surprisingly slowly
Giant orangutans that once dwelled in mainland Southeast Asian forests belonged to a single species that gradually shrank in size over nearly 2 million years, a study suggests.
Today, orangutans are found only on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. But their ancient, super-size kin roamed forests in what’s now southern China and northern Vietnam. Fragmentary Asian fossils of uncertain age have long indicated that these massive, now-extinct orangutans shrank over time. And biological anthropologist Terry Harrison of New York University suspected — based on a small number of fossils from widely different time periods — that the apes rapidly evolved from a larger-bodied species to a different, smaller-bodied species roughly 400,000 years ago as the climate cooled.
But an analysis of 600 ancient orangutan teeth unearthed in 10 caves in southern China supports a different evolutionary scenario, Harrison and colleagues report in the December Journal of Human Evolution.
From around 2 million to 111,000 years ago, the shapes of the teeth remained largely the same, suggesting all were from a single orangutan species. But tooth sizes progressively declined. Using tooth measurements, Harrison, paleoanthropologist Yingqi Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and colleagues estimate that the ancient orangutans’ average body mass started out around 96 kilograms, close to double that of orangutans today.
By around 111,000 years ago, the ancient apes’ average body mass was almost 80 kilograms, which still exceeded that of modern orangutans by nearly 25 kilograms.
Fossils of other ancient Asian animals, including rhinos and monkeys, also show declines in body size over the same period. Cooler, drier conditions that reduced available food starting around 400,000 years ago may have spurred a trend toward smaller bodies, Harrison says.
It’s not clear when orangutans on mainland Asia died out. But climate change and possibly the arrival of humans in the region more than 60,000 years ago contributed to their demise, Harrison speculates.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.sciencenews.org/article/orangutan-body-size-evolution/amp
Article based on this study, reply #19:
beargorillarealm.proboards.com/post/3918/thread
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Post by Gorilla king on Dec 31, 2021 0:08:58 GMT -5
Silverback Gorilla Celebrates 41st Birthday at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Gino, a silverback gorilla at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, just celebrated his 41st birthday. Gino is the leader of the western lowland gorilla family troop at Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and has been with the park since before it opened to guests. He also appeared on “The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom” series on Disney+.
The team of animal care experts surprised Gino and his family with a “cake” for his birthday, which you can see in the video below.
wdwnt.com/2021/12/silverback-gorilla-celebrates-41st-birthday-at-disneys-animal-kingdom/
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Post by Gorilla king on Jan 10, 2022 11:58:04 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Jan 16, 2022 11:54:44 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Jan 25, 2022 22:46:42 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Mar 19, 2022 5:14:45 GMT -5
Mountain gorillas search for new water sources
As temperatures rise, the world’s endangered mountain gorillas are increasing the frequency that they drink water, new research has found.
Mountain gorillas rarely drink water and obtain sufficient quantities of it from the vegetation they eat. But increasing temperatures will make them more reliant on streams, rivers, puddles or swamps to regulate their body temperatures and avoid dehydration. And because they live at higher elevations, they are also more susceptible to faster temperature rises.
www.google.com/amp/s/mg.co.za/environment/2022-03-19-mountain-gorillas-search-for-new-water-sources/%3famp
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Post by Gorilla king on Mar 27, 2022 7:54:42 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Mar 31, 2022 16:29:37 GMT -5
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Post by Gorilla king on Apr 8, 2022 5:19:43 GMT -5
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Post by oldindigosilverback on Apr 8, 2022 6:34:38 GMT -5
Reply 55. Congratulations. The silverback became a father at 31. If not mistaken the average male silverback sexually matures at 15 years old. This guy is probably a late bloomer in comparison to other males.
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Post by Gorilla king on Apr 13, 2022 10:56:47 GMT -5
I WANT TO SEE A SORRY ASS TIGER LIVE PAST 15 YEARS:
Oldest known gorilla in the world turns 65
Berlin, Apr 13 (EFE).- The oldest known gorilla in the world turned 65 on Wednesday, an occasion marked by a birthday celebration at her Berlin zoo enclosure.
Fatou arrived at the zoo in Berlin when she was only two years old.
“For her exceptionally advanced age, Fatou is a decidedly spry old lady with a healthy appetite. We’re happy to have her with us everyday and hope to celebrate a few more birthdays with her,” Zoo Berlin’s Christian Aust said in a statement.
To celebrate Fatou’s special day, the zoo organized a “cozy coffee party” for Fatou and her family with a birthday cake made of rice, cottage cheese, vegetables and fruit.
Fatou lives with her son, four daughters and grandchild.
Western lowland gorillas are at risk of extinction in the wild due to the destruction of their natural habitat and hunting, which have severely impacted the gorilla population.
Gorillas are the largest apes and can weigh up to 200 kg. EFE
www.laprensalatina.com/oldest-known-gorilla-in-the-world-turns-65/
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Post by Gorilla king on Apr 20, 2022 17:08:49 GMT -5
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