THE GORILLA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 81, 7 April 1937, Page 20

THE GORILLA.

The gorilla ie the largest of all the man-hke apes. When standing upright, the father gorilla is over six feet in height. The mother gorilla, however, is usually about a foot and a half shorter. The next two apes nearest in size to the gorilla are the chimpanzee and eranutan. The chimpanzee stands about five feet high and the orangoutang is about the same size as the mother gorilla, that is, four and a half feet- The gorilla is also very massive, one animal wei«*hin" as much as 30 stone. ° ° The gorilla is a very powerful creature, in fact, a full-sized father gorilla would be more than a match for 10 men in physical strength. A man hunting in the jungle would rather face a lion or a rhinoceros than an angry gorilla. This creature can seize a leopard, maul it to death, and toss it aside just as if it were a kitten. The gorilla can make two very distinct sounds; one ie a loud roar, which < even rivals the roar of a lion, the other is a loud drumming noise, made by thumping its breast with its fists. The animal moves about the woods in small bande of about 10, eating a good deal of food, which consists mainly of bamboo sjioots and sweet juicy roots. Bands of gorillas often raid native plantations, where they do much damage to the sugar canes, the young shoots of which they particularly enjoy. Unlike many wild animals, however, the gorilla only roams the forest during the day in search of food. At night, it goes to rest just as we do. The father gorilla makes a bed of branches at the foot of a tree. From this it is always ready to drive off leopards or other enemies when they try to attack the babiee who live "upstaire."' The babies with their mother usually sleep on a rough platform built up in a tree. The gorilla stands upright when facing an enemy, but its usual attitude when moving about is on all fours. Nothing really definite was known about the gorilla until as recently as 1861, when a French traveller returned from the African forests and spoke of a large ape that he saw there. Since then, of course, we have learned a lot about its habits. ,/ The gorilla is found in the hilly districts of the great forests of Africa.