Mountain Gorillas in Uganda

Mountain gorillas follow a pretty standard daily routine which includes a lot of sitting around, quietly picking and eating, followed by a pause, then more picking and eating.
Living high up in cloudy rainforests, often at altitudes of over 2,200 meters above sea level, these furry apes have adapted to life in their often cold and sopping wet environment.

The Afromontane forest that mountain gorillas inhabit is dense, but not enough to block out the light that sustains the rich under story of plant life on which they depend. It is these forests which provide the food types on which gorillas survive and which are found nowhere else on earth.

Discover the Mountain Gorillas in the Bwindi National Park on a Gorilla Safari. Also see these majestic animals in Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills, on a Rwanda safari.

Eating is everything

After waking up, gorillas tend to spend the next three to four hours foraging. Then it is time to socialize, followed by a short siesta before foraging resumes. Eating will continue till early evening, when they prepare their night’s nests.

Because their diet is of such low nutritional quality, between 30–45% percent of a gorilla’s day is spent searching for food.

98% vegetarian, Gorillas are selective eaters their daily diet being made up of a variety of over 200 plant species which include a selection of leaves, buds, shoots, stems and vines which may be taken from as many as 160 different plant species.

The balance is made up of other plant matter like bulbs, bark, fruits, soil for minerals, termites and ants.

Near the top of the menu for mountain gorillas is gallium vine or ‘gorilla fast food’.
Gallium is consumed in its entirety!

Gorillas are the most terrestrial of all apes and are often seen sitting regally pulling out handfuls of plants all around them, but their four most common foods actually require precision processing to expose the palatable parts.

Getting past the stings, hooks and spines that “defend” these foods often requires a bit of dexterity. Unlike humans, mountain gorillas lack cutlery, so their mouth, teeth, and lips must carry out many more tasks relating to food than our own. They strip bark with their teeth or carefully dissect a log for ants and termites.

As with other apes, the gorillas’ feeding methods such as snapping, breaking and biting, act as a type of natural pruning for the plants, stimulating them for fresh growth and greater production. This is one of the many ecological roles gorillas play in maintaining their habitat. While foraging, gorillas are constantly on the go, stopping when favorite foods are found and making the rounds to check on the state of feeding haunts from years past.

Because of their lush tropical surroundings, gorillas don’t venture very far in search of food. On average, gorillas will consume 25 kilograms of food per day within a radius of 1 km.

One of the things that all gorillas are looking for are fruiting trees and in Bwindi Forest trees fruit during the dry months of January, February, July, August and September.
During the fruiting season, gorillas are forced to move long distances in search of fruit, often into the very heart of the rainforest.

Many books state that gorillas don’t climb trees because they are too heavy. In fact, they often do so, especially when they find a fruiting tree. During fruiting season, fruit makes up 2% of their diet. Lacking in certain vitamins and minerals, gorillas will supplement their diets by eating roots, shoots, bark, termites, red ants, grubs and worms, which all feature on the menu.

And as with everything, Silverbacks pull rank when it comes to eating, often locating themselves in choice positions in the cores of trees and on large, sturdy branches.
Females and to a lesser extent lower-ranking males, often resort to using risky postures and smaller branches, foraging in the periphery of trees. When the family forages together they use large trees where everyone can gain access.

Who hangs where is a question of size, social rank and tree structure. This is also a time when gorillas change their daily diets as they begin to feed on the fresh, ripe fruits.
Large groups may spread out over ½ km to forage, or split into smaller groups for the day, meeting up again to nest together in the evening.They do this to avoid competition for plants, and communicate using a quiet contact call known as a “BV” or belch vocalization.

Infants are weaned at around 3½ years of age during which time they learn which plants are edible and how to prepare them by watching their mothers.

When gorillas get old they lose their teeth, and their weight, as they can no longer forage normally like the rest of the group.

To be precise, foraging for mountain gorillas is a leisurely family affair – a picnic party with no beginning and no end!

Click here to see Gorilla Trekking Videos.

Go on a Gorilla tour and travel in these amazing animals home land.

Discover the Mountain Gorillas in the East African wild where there are only about 700 left in the wild, organised by Mountain Gorilla Safaris.

Also see Kenya Masai Mara.