Featured Endangered Species: Mountain Gorilla

Mountain Gorilla 

 Status: Critically endangered
Due to detrimental human activity, such as poaching, civil war, and habitat destruction, the mountain gorilla has become the most endangered type of gorilla. 
Number Remaining: 700
Location: Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Description  

• Mountain Gorillas live at high elevations, 10,000 feet or higher on the slopes of volcanoes. 
• Mountain gorillas are herbivores, eating plants like wild celery, thistle, and nettles. Special treats are bamboo and bracket fungus. 
• Gorillas live in family troops led by the largest male, called the silverback because of the beautiful silver fur on his back. They are fiercely protective of their young and will defend them literally to the death. Poachers after baby gorillas for international trade often have had to kill entire families to capture their quarry. 
• Female mountain gorillas can produce young beginning at age 10. They carry one or two babies at a time and give birth after a 8.5-month gestation period. In general, they will bear between two and six offspring in a lifetime.
• Newborn gorillas weigh about 1.8 kg (4 lb.) at birth. They are as weak and uncoordinated as human babies. For the first four years of their lives, they get around by clinging to their mothers backs. By 3.5 years of age, the young gorillas are fully weaned from their mothers milk and start the same diet as mature mountain gorillas: plants, leaves, roots and shoots.
• Fully-grown male mountain gorillas can weigh up to 180 kg (400 lb). Females weigh half that at about 90 kg ( 200 lb). Aside from the silver stripe on their backs, male mountain gorillas are distinguished from females because they have a crest of fur on their heads. Both genders have similar thick black hair covering their body. Their thick hair keeps them warm in cold mountain temperatures

What You Can Do to Help

To help, you can make donations to the International Gorilla Conservation Program. You can also support the Gorilla Fund International, set up by conservationist Dian Fossey.

Sources:
http://www.animalfactguide.com/animalfacts/mountain-gorilla/
http://www.bagheera.com/inthewild/van_anim_gorilla.htm