![]() After leaving, they often stay on their own until they are joined by females. Like the females, they usually have to leave the group on reaching adulthood. In captivity, occasionally individuals just under 7 years old turn out to be fertile.įree-ranging mountain gorilla males are fully grown at approximately 15 years of age. When exactly males reach sexual maturity has not yet been determined. This is when a blackback male turns into a silverback - the silvery back, the huge canines and the other secondary sexual characteristics develop. In male gorillas, puberty extends over several years. The gorilla is beating his chest as a warning signal to the younger gor. In their choice of males, gorilla females can be quite particular: Usually they transfer to a new group several times before they settle down with a certain silverback male. Reaching adulthood, female gorillas usually leave the group they were born in and join a new partner. By comparison, girls of western industrialized countries reach sexual maturity at 12 years at the earliest. Captive gorillas usually reach sexual maturity faster, sometimes in their 6th year. Female mountain gorillas can ovulate for the first time when they are about 8 years old, but usually the first ovulation happens in their 10th year. When female gorillas reach sexual maturity, they develop a hormone cycle similar to that of human females. Usually, adult gorillas will hold, carry and groom the infant, while young gorillas will try to play with them. At latest when the young gorilla starts moving away from its mother, the other animals seize the opportunity to make contact with it. As soon as the mother permits the others to approach, they will look at the newborn baby, smell and touch it. Under the protection and control of the mother it slowly grows into the community. In spite of this, mother and older offspring maintain a strong relationship.įrom its first day of life, the baby is part of the group. At approximately 3 years they start to become independent because their mother gives birth to the next baby. For comparison, an adult human male generally weighs between 90-100Kg. The average male silverback gorilla weighs between 140-205Kg. He was also the leader of his group and is thought to have been around 35 years old when he died. At 8 months they regularly ingest solid food. At 225Kg, Guhonda is the heaviest gorilla ever recorded in the wild. At 4-6 months they start to put plant parts into their mouth and to bite on them. In general, gorilla babies are nursed for at least 2 years. Physical contact with the mother starts to decrease at the latest in the baby's 4th or 5th month, when it starts to walk quadrupedally. At first the mother supports the baby with one hand, but even on its first day it can cling to her fur without help for a certain length of time. In the first few months, a young gorilla is constantly in physical contact with its mother. Experienced females in particular don't concern themselves much with their offspring apart from carrying, nursing, grooming and protecting them. As a rule, gorillas 'mother' their children very little.
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