Gorilla Research

African great ape ancestor genome changed rapidly

By Leila Gray
University Week, University of Washington
Posted: Febuary 12, 2009

The genome of the evolutionary ancestor of humans and present-day apes underwent a burst of activity in duplicating segments of DNA, according to a study to be published in Nature Feb 12, the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday.

"The new study shows big differences in the genomes of humans and great apes within duplicated sequences containing rapidly evolving genes. Most of these differences occurred at a time just prior to the speciation of chimpanzee, gorilla, and humans," said researchers Tomas Marques-Bonet and Jeffrey M. Kidd who headed the study. Both are fellows in the lab of Evan Eichler, UW professor of genome sciences, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and senior author of the paper.

"It is unclear why, but the common ancestor of humans, chimps and gorillas had an unusual activity of duplication," Kidd added. "Moreover, we don't yet know the functions of most of the genes that were affected by these duplications."

The great ape ancestors, from whom humans, gorillas and chimps descended, lived in Africa between 8 million and 12 million years ago. Most scientists think that the lineage that eventually led to chimps and humans diverged from the African great ape ancestors about 5 million to 7 million years ago.

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Locomotion - Baby Western Lowland Gorilla

Infant gorillas are often carried on the arm of their mother, or cling to the arm or leg. As the young gorillas grow they are carried on the back of the adult.

Around six months, they move about on all fours and knuckle walk like the adults.

Uzumma, a baby Western Lowland Gorilla and mother, Amanda, and sister Calaya at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. A couple days shy of six months old (Born 10/20/2007).

Newborn Baby Western Lowland Gorilla

Baby Western Lowland Gorilla and mother, Amanda, at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. First day in outdoor public area. Female baby was only 2 days old. Notice how Amada carefully handles and carries the infant.

First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorillas

Thomas Breuer1,2*, Mireille Ndoundou-Hockemba1, Vicki Fishlock1

1 Wildlife Conservation Society, Mbeli Bai Study, Nouabalé-Ndoki Project, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, 2 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

Descriptions of novel tool use by great apes in response to different circumstances aids us in understanding the factors favoring the evolution of tool use in humans. This paper documents what we believe to be the first two observations of tool use in wild western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla). We first observed an adult female gorilla using a branch as a walking stick to test water deepness and to aid in her attempt to cross a pool of water at Mbeli Bai, a swampy forest clearing in northern Congo. In the second case we saw another adult female using a detached trunk from a small shrub as a stabilizer during food processing. She then used the trunk as a self-made bridge to cross a deep patch of swamp. In contrast to information from other great apes, which mostly show tool use in the context of food extraction, our observations show that in gorillas other factors such as habitat type can stimulate the use of tools.

Citation: Breuer T, Ndoundou-Hockemba M, Fishlock V (2005) First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorillas. PLoS Biol 3(11): e380

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Gorilla Genetics

View the 48 chromosomes of a gorilla and see the comparative karyotype of the great apes provided by Dr. Mariano Rocchi at the Istituto di Genetica in Italy. View gorilla chromosomes.

Gorilla Classification Debate

Until recently everyone agreed that there was only one species of gorilla, which was divided into three different subspecies. The western lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla gorilla) was found in central and west Africa, the eastern lowland gorilla (gorilla gorilla grauerei) lived in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the mountain gorilla (gorilla gorilla berengei) was found in the Virunga volcanoes that straddle the borders of DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, with a smaller population in Bwindi, in Uganda.

However, in early 2000 the eastern and western populations of gorillas were declared to be two separate species. The western lowland gorilla was divided into two subspecies, with the Cross River gorilla (gorilla gorilla diehli) being distinguished from the rest of the western lowland gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla). There are only around 150 Cross River gorillas left in the wild, living in very fragmented habitat on the border of Nigeria and Cameroon. The term western gorilla that is used throughout this web site incorporates both these subspecies.

Gorilla Taxonomy

Gorillas are found in two widely separate parts of Africa. Western gorillas live in the West-Central African region: southwestern Central African Republic, Congo, Mayombe, Luanda, Gabon, Río Muni, southern Cameroon, southeastern Nigeria, and the Djabbir region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eastern gorillas live in the East-Central African region: eastern D. R. Congo, southwestern Uganda, northern Rwanda. Eastern and Western gorillas are somewhat different. How to classify them?

Cross River Gorillas - a Neglected Subspecies

Esteban E. Sarmiento and John F. Oates
Gorilla Journal 19, December 1999

In 1904, Paul Matschie, a pioneer in mammalian taxonomy working at the Humboldt University Zoological Museum in Berlin described a new species of gorilla inhabiting the watershed of the Cross River in what was then German Cameroon, close to the border of British-governed Nigeria. Matschie named the species Gorilla diehli in honor of Mr. Diehl, an employee of the German Northwestern Cameroon Company, who had collected the gorilla skulls on which Matschie based his new species. According to Matschie the 1) short skull, 2) short molar row, 3) palate shape, 4) and skull base shape distinguished Gorilla diehli as a new species separate from Gorilla gorilla.

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WCS-Congo: Mbeli Bai Gorilla Research

Interview with Thomas Breuer, Mbeli Bai project lead

Mbeli Bai is a large swampy clearing of approximately 15 hectares which is situated in the southwest of the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. The bai is a preferred feeding site for western lowland gorillas, who eat the aquatic herbs such as Hydrocharis chevalieri and Rynchospora corymbosa which dominate the bai. Pilot studies conducted in 1994 found that the area attracted large numbers of gorillas and full-time monitoring began in 1995.