The reason bamboo is the most sought-after meal for mountain gorillas is because, despite their enormous size, which anybody may assume is worth supporting with meat, bamboo is a delicacy of these primates.

Several experts who have studied mountain gorillas’ eating habits throughout time have established that they do not consume meat.

Unlike mountain gorillas, primates such as chimpanzees have been known to consume meat during periods of extreme shortage.

Although there are dense natural plant zones across the mountain gorilla’s habitat, the bamboo zone of the Himalayas is the most sought-after food source.

Between 2400 and 3000 meters of the mountains are covered by the bamboo zone. The mountain gorilla taste buds are excited by the flavor of bamboo, particularly the shoots.

An adult male mountain gorilla may consume over 300 pounds of foliage on a typical day, which may sustain it throughout the day and night.

Their bodies are meant to be supported by this day and night. Tourists are only permitted to spend an hour with the mountain gorillas during gorilla trekking since feeding time is crucial.

The hour you spend with the mountain gorillas may be crucial to their ability to gather more food to sustain their bodies.

Because mountain gorillas are wild creatures who must fend for themselves, you are not permitted to feed them during gorilla trekking.

They may cease hunting and become dependent on people if they begin to eat human handouts, which might become harmful over time.

Mountain gorillas eat more than just bamboo; they also like collecting leaves, including bananas, soft stems, fruits, roots, and stinging nettles, which they carefully consume.

If ants are present, they may sometimes add them to their diet. Termites and ants are harvested by holding a stick, dipping it in a hole from which ants are exiting, and then eating the ants that have gathered on the stick. As long as the ants are still emerging, they often do it.

Although the mountain gorillas that consume this flora are somewhat immune to illnesses that may harm them, this does not imply that you can bring human ailments into the area.

Because mountain gorillas have almost 96% human DNA, they are very vulnerable to human infectious diseases like the flu, COVID-19, and others.

To lessen the possibility of infecting the mountain gorillas with the corona virus, you must wear a face mask when you find them.

The conservation of this endangered ape species has cost a lot of money and time. Since the foliage serves as food for the gorillas, try not to spit on it when gorilla trekking. It is one of the ways that you may infect mountain gorillas, who are already at risk.

Researchers may take samples of the gorillas’ feces to determine the extent of their infections, or veterinary gorilla physicians may visit to treat a sick or wounded mountain gorilla.

This does not imply that they must treat every illness they come across. The mountain gorillas must find their own medicine by consuming leaves.

Amy, a naturalist, observed the feeding habits of mountain gorillas.

Food, water, safety, social support, and reproductive possibilities are necessities for every animals. Mountain gorilla tracking relies on the abundant vegetation of the Virungas for both food and water.

The long-term survival of the 260 Virunga gorillas that remain in the Parc des Volcans is seriously threatened by the recent loss of 40% of their forest habitat.

It seems unlikely that the gorilla population would recover to the four- to five-hundred-strong levels that George Schaller had documented.

The sole important source of knowledge on the ecology of gorilla eating over two decades later was Schaller’s 1960 study of the mountain gorilla.

Schaller recorded the gorillas’ use of several habitats on Mount Mikeno in the Congolese part of the Virungas, in addition to his thorough examination of their behavior and social structure.

In order to document the foods that gorillas eat, he also invented the technique of direct observation. This was a significant advancement over the indirect techniques of analyzing stomach contents and excrement, which at the time were thought to be the only practical means of learning about the diets of wild animals.

We still needed to learn a lot more about the gorilla’s dietary and environmental needs, however, in spite of Schaller’s heroic efforts.

Was Mikeno the park’s spokesperson? To what extent did the gorillas really eat the various items that were accessible to them? Were they biased?

If yes, were decisions made on the basis of availability or quality? Could the now-depleted forest ultimately provide for their long-term needs?

On a June day, as our first extended rainy season was coming to a close, she heard a commotion and turned her head to see who was moving through the dense undergrowth.

She wanted to finish her daily count since she hadn’t yet seen every member of group 5. She turned, relieved that Patsy and Muraha were safe, to discover Beethoven had slipped discreetly behind her, reaching for a plastic bag she had filled with gallium.

Amy lost the race, but she did reach. Beethoven stutters a few paces away, grabs the bag, and sits down with a confident expression.

Bamboo biting

He grabbed inside the bag and started jamming folded “wedges” of gallium into his jaws, eating firmly until he completed his meals as Amy stared in confused disbelief.

He let the bag fall to the side, then snatched a few strands of the adhering vine from his hairy forearm and walked away to take a sleep.

This was a supper that Beethoven was familiar with. It was lost data for Amy. She would spend five hours a day, almost every day, keeping an eye on one group member as part of her study.

She kept track of what the person consumed, what was around but not consumed, and what other gorillas were consuming during that period.

She had come up with a simple technique to measure the amounts of food ingested by simulating each person’s feeding by sitting close by and collecting equal amounts of whatever was being eaten.

Amy’s extra meal was packed after the feeding, taken back to our cabin for weighing, and then dried for a further nutritional analysis. Beethoven definitely eliminated any concerns she may have had about selecting meals of a comparable caliber to those consumed by the gorillas on the day of the big gallium robbery.

In only a few months, Amy’s almost continual presence was fully accepted by the group 5 gorillas. On wet days, she would often find the whole group still in bed. On other days, she would leave the cabin at the crack of dawn and rush forth alone to catch the group before it started eating.

On most other mornings, she would discover a number of adults still slouching in their night nests, causing just a few belch vocalizations.

Amy acknowledges her presence by returning the two-tone sound, which sounds like a deep clearing of the throat. Typically, the baby gorillas were already awake and alert, anticipating their parents’ arrival like excited kids on Christmas morning.

A silent choice would be taken when the last adult got out of bed, and the group would then follow Beethoven or an older woman like Effie.

Amy would now approach her target animal and remain close to that person throughout the morning.

She would meet up with the group late in the morning on alternating days when she conducted five-hour afternoon focals, sometimes known as intense observation sessions, and then remain until the conclusion of their last feeding session and the start of their nightly nest-building.

Amy’s observation that the gorillas were more comfortable when she remained near them provided fresh insight into the ecology and behavior of gorilla feeding.

Every thorn on a thistle and every stinging hair on a nettle can be seen plainly from a distance of three to six feet. The gorillas regarded these meals with care, yet they were crucial to them.

The gorillas would delicately drape the spikes over the edge of the long leaf of a thistle plant, which served as a natural sheath.

After placing this package strategically in the side of their mouths, the gorillas crushed it with their teeth.

Similar treatment was given to nettles, but in this instance, the gorillas would gather all the leaves in a bundle, pressing the irritating surfaces against one another and away from their skin, by sliding beneath the sides of two fingers up the stem.

Then, with the stinging hairs oriented away from the mouth’s site of entrance, they tore off this grass and ate it.

It seems that gorillas were able to withstand the inherent defenses of these two plants due to their high water content and combined nutritional value.

The only celery with more liquid was wild celery, which sometimes trickled down the gorillas’ chins as they loudly nibbled on the robust stalks.

Although we had to be really thirsty to withstand the harsh aftertaste of its young stems, celery was also the most appetizing of these plants in our opinion.

After trying almost everything the gorilla ate, Amy developed a particular fondness for mature celery as a noon beverage alternative.

The gorilla’s favorite meal was bamboo. Group 5 was seldom far from the lower elevation zone near the park boundary, where bamboo thrived, during the five months of the year when fresh shoots were in season.

To improve their chances of locating the sprouts, the gorillas here disperse into a fan shape. Upon discovering the three- to four-foot pointed shoots, people sat to savor the taste in solitude after first scanning their surroundings for rivals.

They gently removed the pepper-like sheaths after removing the whole shoot from the ground, then loudly ate the juicy center.

Under the complete shelter of bamboo, the group left behind tidy circular mounds of spiral wrappings, which made it easier for Amy to follow them over the mostly naked ground.

Bamboo mingled with other plants when this canopy was disturbed. Bamboo blended with other plants, and one plant broke in a few spots. Droguetia, a vine with one to two inch-long leaves, was one plant that flourished under these circumstances.

Droguetia was particularly popular with the gorillas when combined with bamboo. Subsequent investigations would show that this was a potent kind of nutritional complementarity rather than only a taste preference.

 

Are Primates at Risk from Mountain Gorillas?

Despite being among the most placid primates, mountain gorillas may excite the senses at first sight. They are not aggressive creatures, as many movies have shown them to be.

Their shyness is evident when you glance into their dark brown eyes. You can do it covertly, but we don’t recommend staring into their eyes.

Since mountain gorillas are not aggressive, no one has ever been attacked and brutally murdered by them.

To show their fury, mountain gorillas would twist vines around themselves, beat their chests, hoot, and walk on one foot.

During the briefing, each trekker is cautioned not to provoke the mountain gorillas to the point where they act in such a way.

The dominant silverback’s autonomy is highly respected by the mountain gorillas, therefore they avoid actions that may lead him to order the whole family to go into hiding.

It is his duty to protect his family as a whole, and he battles to the end to ensure their safety.

Since almost everyone in the family loves these babies, just don’t touch them. Some of the inquisitive infants could approach to touch some of your possessions, but avoid being aggressive with them as this might lead to a violent outburst.

Avoid making loud noises even while you’re searching for the gorillas since they sometimes have a spy network that lets the other gorillas know you’re in the area. If you act irresponsibly, the dominant silverback may be informed by the surveillance team, and you may encounter an unwelcoming response.