What are gorillas?
Gorillas are largest of the great apes, the group that includes chimpanzees and orang-utans. Genetically, humans, chimps and gorillas are very closely related-we share 97% of the same genes with gorillas, and 98% with chimp! A scientist from another plant would not hesitate to classify us all in the same genes. Human scientist place us and the apes in the super family Hominoidea within the order primates. Other primates include monkeys, lemurs and bushbabies. Apes differ from monkeys in being larger, having bigger brains and no tails. The gorillas in Bwindi and Mgahinga are mountain gorillas, the rarest of the three sub species of gorillas. All gorillas occur exclusively in the dense forest of the west and central Africa. Mountain gorillas are found only in the Virunga Volcanoes and Bwindi. Our changing perception of gorillas African people have long known that gorillas lived in the forests. To the rest of the world, however, gorillas were for centuries mysterious and largely unknown.
