Gorillas belong to a specialized type of herbivore called folivore. Some of herbivores have large, lusterless and flat teeth. These types of teeth are excellent for chewing and breaking down of hard plant materials. While carnivorous have sharp and narrow teeth. Those are better for biting and tearing flesh. Here we have gathered complete information on What Do Mountain Gorillas Eat and listed down the plants that form part of the Mountain Gorillas Diet. You are also going to learn about the amount of food they eat and their food chain.
What Do Mountain Gorillas Eat
- The mountain gorillas live in high altitude mountain areas where fruit trees are less in numbers.
- Therefore 86% of mountain gorillas diet consists of leaves, stems and buds of about 142 different species of plants that are found in its habitat.
- Rest of their diet consists of:
- Fruits (2%)
- Flowers (3%)
- Roots and invertebrates (9%).
- Mountain gorillas rarely drink water because a large portion of their diet contains water.
How Much do Mountain Gorillas Eat
- As mountain gorillas have large body, they need more food as compared to humans.
- Mountain gorillas are herbivorous. i.e. they eat leaves, stems buds and fruits which have relatively low energy.
- To achieve appropriate nutrition, they spend more time in search of feeding related activities.
- They also travel long distance in search of food.
- Silverback gorillas are almost twice stronger than a female gorillas and relatively need more food.
- A silverback gorilla consumes about 34kg (75lb) in a day.
- An adult female gorilla consumes 18kg (39 lb) to 20kg (44lb) of foods every day.
- Newly born gorilla babies remain in constantly physical contact with their mothers for 6 months and nursed by mothers for 2.5 to 3 years.
- Initially mothers feed milk their babies with their breasts.
- At the age of 4 to 6 months, babies of mountain gorillas’ begin to take in plants parts into their.
- When they reach an age of 8 years they easily ingest solid food.
- They begin to become independent at the age of 3 years.
Mountain Gorilla Food List
- Mountain gorillas get 86% of food from the leaves, stems and buds of 142 species of plant. Among these bamboo is a key food and very important for number of reasons.
- They eat both bamboo leaves and bamboo shoots.
- They also eat Wild Celery (a plant cultivated as vegetable)
- They eat tree bark and pulp.
- A little part of food is flowers and fruit also
- Occasionally they eat invertebrates also.
Mountain Gorilla Food Chain
- In a particular environment or habitat how species of same and different types depend for food on each other, making a feeding relationship called food chain.
- In a food chain plants are called producers as they prepare their food by themselves.
- Consumers are the animal that don’t prepare their food by themselves and depend on others for their food.
- The animals that directly depend on the producers for their food are called the primary consumers.
- The animals that depend on the primary consumers for their food are called secondary consumers.
- The animals depending on secondary consumers for their food are called tertiary consumers and so on to fourth, fifth etc making a chain called food chain.
- Examples of Gorilla food chain:
- Wild berries (Producer) Gorilla (Primary Consumer) Poacher (secondary consumer).
- Thistle (Producer) Gorilla (Primary Consumer) Leopard (Secondary Consumer) Poacher (Tertiary Consumer).
- Bamboo Shoots (Producer) Gorilla (Primary Consumer) Crocodile (Secondary Consumer) Poacher (Tertiary Consumer).
