Eastern lowland gorillas are the largest subspecies of gorilla and the largest living primates. These apes follow a strict order as that of humans with the silverback as the head, protector and control movements of the family. The adult silverback can weigh up to 120kg and eat up to 25kgs a day while a female can weigh up to 90kg.

Gorillas have a slow reproduction rate where males begin to breed at the age of 12 or 15 years and females give their first birth at the age of 10 and continue to give birth in an interval of three or four years. Most female gorillas produce a single young one each time they give birth and the young ones grow and develop faster as twice as humans. At the age of 3 months, the infant Gorilla can sit upright and stand with support. The female breast feeds its infant up to about 3 and half years when it becomes independent and during the lactation period, the females cannot conceive since gorillas don’t mate for pleasure but for reproduction purposes only. Unlike their stronger parents the newborns are very tiny weighing 4 pounds and can only be able to cling on their mothers’ fur. However, the infants continue to ride on their mothers’ backs from four months to their first two years.

They are strictly vegetarians and eat a lot of food in order to support their heavy weight and their favorite foods are; bamboo, thistles, bedstraw, fruits, wild celery, roots and these foods have a lot of moisture making the gorillas need no water.