Where Do Gorillas Live?

Gorillas are one of the World’s strongest animals and interestingly one of the most sought-after creatures during African safaris (especially to Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cameroon). Where these Giant Apes are one of the most confusing topics and frequently asked questions by travelers.

Before anything else, it should be noted that four gorilla sub-species (Mountain gorillas, the Eastern lowland gorillas, the western lowland gorillas as well as the Cross River gorillas) are members of two broad species (Western and Eastern gorillas). Each of these Great Ape species is found in different African countries but one common thing about all of them is that they live exclusively in the tropical rainforests of the African Continent. These places are normally marked by a slight variation in Temperature levels (about 23 Celsius degrees) as well as the length of daylight being about twelve hours. Even so, the precipitation level changes remarkably within the Tropics and is the primary influence for the vegetation type in a particular region.

The distribution range of gorillas is split into two regions, approximately 559 miles divides the Western and Eastern gorillas. The main reasons for this incredible separation is possibly because the once uniform region was split during the Ice age period. Additionally, climatic changes at the time made the dense rainforests to reduce into meagre refuge areas. Between these refuge areas were savannah, which were unfortunately not favorable natural habitats for the Giant Apes. Subsequently, when the tropical rainforest grew again over the entire African Tropics, these primates could only make progress to the Ubangi and Congo Rivers.

As the two main gorilla species separated for a long period of time, they went through different development paths. As of today, they now vary incredibly in external features as well as genetic material. Much as the boundaries of the Gorillas’ distribution range appear to have modified slightly over the last few years, their natural environments have been disintegrated as well as encroached so much as the thickly forested regions are progressively declined and far-flung from each other by activities like farming.

In some areas, these Great Apes have completely vanished altogether, owing to the destruction of the Tropical rainforests that are their natural habitats. For this reason, the gorillas are usually restricted to small and cut-off natural forest Islands.

The lowland regions of thick Tropical rainforests are normally marked by prolonged dry months as well as trees, thorny shrubs, and succulent plants species that have much water in their cells. In other regions, there are varying dry and wet months that are normally made up of tropical deciduous forests. Here, the deciduous shrubs as well as trees shed off their leaves during the dry months, then re-generate new ones at the beginning of the rainy season.

When it comes to the distribution of these gorilla subspecies, the western lowland gorillas occupy the thick Tropical forests of Angola, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of   Congo and Equatorial Guinea. Most of these countries are found in the West African region. For these sub-species, their population is between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals.

The Cross River Gorillas occupy a smaller region between Cameroon and Nigeria and have a total population of about 250 to 300 individuals.

Eastern lowland gorillas are found in the Tropical Forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (in the Eastern region) and are about 3000 individuals. These are the largest of the four gorilla subspecies.

The exceptional mountain gorillas occupy regions of high elevation from 1650 to 4000 meters above sea level, marked by tropical forests in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda.