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Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building: Cleveland Zoo - Cleveland, Ohio


The gorilla, the largest of the living primates is a ground-dwelling herbivore that inhabits limited regions of forest in central Africa. The gorilla occurs in two species, the western gorilla and the eastern gorilla. Both species are endangered due to poaching, loss of habitat, and death caused by the ebola virus. Gorilla DNA is 98 percent identical to that of humans, making them the second closest living relative to humans, after the two chimpanzee species.

Gorillas are apes in the superfamily Hominoidea and the family Hominidae known also as the "great apes" and comprising humans, the gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans. All other apes belong to the family Hylobatidae and are known as the "lesser apes" (gibbons).

In September 2005, a two and a half year old gorilla in the Republic of Congo was discovered using rocks to smash open palm nuts. While this was the first such observation for a gorilla, over 40 years previously chimpanzees had been seen using tools in the wild, famously “fishing” for termites. Other animals also use tools; sea otters, for example, place rocks on their chests to break sea urchins. Gorillas use sticks and rocks to thwart predators. Great apes are endowed with a semi-precision grip, and have been able to use both simple tools and even weapons, by improvising a club from a convenient fallen branch.


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