Have you ever wondered how experts train a gorilla? Or what design features make a great gorilla habitat? Did you know that some gorillas can solve problems on giant touch-screen computers?
Filled with facts and photos, Gorillas Up Close takes us into the world of gorillas. Explore the differences between gorillas in zoos and in the wild with the gorilla family troop in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Readers will delight in the similarities gorillas share with humans while finding out more about these incredible animals.
Have you ever wondered how experts train a gorilla? Or what design features make a great gorilla habitat? Did you know that some gorillas can solve problems on giant touch-screen computers?
Filled with facts and photos, Gorillas Up Close takes us into the world of gorillas. Explore the differences between gorillas in zoos and in the wild with the gorilla family troop in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Readers will delight in the similarities gorillas share with humans while finding out more about these incredible animals.
Gorillas Up Close
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Overview
Have you ever wondered how experts train a gorilla? Or what design features make a great gorilla habitat? Did you know that some gorillas can solve problems on giant touch-screen computers?
Filled with facts and photos, Gorillas Up Close takes us into the world of gorillas. Explore the differences between gorillas in zoos and in the wild with the gorilla family troop in Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. Readers will delight in the similarities gorillas share with humans while finding out more about these incredible animals.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781627790918 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) |
| Publication date: | 04/19/2016 |
| Pages: | 176 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d) |
| Lexile: | 1040L (what's this?) |
| Age Range: | 8 - 12 Years |
About the Author
Christena Nippert-Eng is a sociologist and Professor of Informatics at Indiana University-Bloomington. She has been watching zoo gorillas and teaching students how to do so for almost twenty years.
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Read an Excerpt
Gorillas Up Close
By Christena Nippert-Eng, John Dominski, Frederick Grier, Jim Hornor, Eugene Limb, Sally Limb, Miguel Martinez
Henry Holt and Company
Copyright © 2016 Christena Nippert-EngAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62779-092-5
CHAPTER 1
KWAN (KWAHN)
There's no doubt about it: Kwan is one impressive guy. He's a silverback, which is an adult male gorilla. He lives at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Kwan is the leader of his troop and a dad who takes his job very seriously.
If you want to understand gorillas, you should start with one very important rule: do not mess with a silverback. A silverback is smart and curious and might be as interested in you as you are in him. He can be relaxed, kind, and patient. But the moment he thinks you are being disrespectful or bothering his family, he will do his best to scare you off and send you on your way.
Kwan is an excellent example of a mature silverback. He's lightning fast, unbelievably powerful, and quick to respond. Some silverbacks are more relaxed. They just give misbehaving troop members a warning look or "bark" and the mischief makers stop what they're doing. Kwan will get up and make his family members stop what they're doing before they even notice that he noticed what they were doing! Yet this massive, foreboding silverback is very gentle when he plays with his kids, and he likes solving puzzles on a gorilla-sized computer touch screen. Kwan was also in a movie. When he was ten years old, he was filmed while going about his everyday activities for the movie Return to Me. He appeared as the character named Sydney.
Kwan's full name is Kwanza (KWAHN-zuh). It means "first" or "beginning" in Swahili. He was given that name because he was the first gorilla born at North Carolina Zoo. He's grown now, and his desire to get up and go helps him stay remarkably fit. He weighs a whopping 365 pounds and eats sixteen pounds of vegetables and leafy greens with a bit of fruit every day. His favorite foods include tomatoes, red peppers, lettuces, kale, and any kind of fruit. He enjoys snacking on crunchy low-sugar breakfast cereals, too, and can pick up a single Rice Krispie with those giant sausage fingers of his.
KWAN
• BORN: March 2, 1989, at North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC
• OFFSPRING: Amare (with Kowali), Patty (with Bana), Nayembi (with Rollie), Bella (with Bahati)
• PARENTS: Carlos (father) and Hope (mother)
• SIBLINGS: None
• HALF SIBLINGS: Kwashi and Kuja
GORILLAS AND HUMANS: SOME DIFFERENCES
Gorilla and human bodies are very similar. For starters, neither one of us has a tail. (Monkeys have tails; great apes do not.)
We have far more in common than that, though. In fact, if a zoo gorilla needs surgery, veterinarians who specialize in zoo medicine work together with doctors who would perform that kind of surgery on humans. For instance, the surgeon who operated on Michael Jordan and other members of the Chicago Bulls basketball team came once to Lincoln Park Zoo to repair the knee of an aging silverback named Frank.
There are, however, some interesting differences between gorilla and human anatomy.
Like humans, gorillas have opposable thumbs on their hands. Their thumbs work from the opposite direction of the rest of their fingers, so they can grab and hold things. But unlike humans, gorillas also have opposable "thumbs" on their feet — their big toes. Being able to grab and hold on to things with their feet makes tree climbing easier.
Gorillas have a crest called a sagittal ridge on the tops of their heads. It runs from front to back along the middle of the skull and is especially prominent on silverbacks. This ridge supports powerful jaw muscles and massive molars that help crush and grind fibrous, woody plants.
Male gorillas are usually about twice as big as female gorillas. Overall, the average difference in body size between gorilla males and females is much greater than it is between human males and females.
Gorillas' arms are longer and more powerful than their legs. They can walk on two legs, but they usually use both their arms and their legs to walk. They support their weight on the knuckles of their hands and the bottoms of their feet.
Gorillas eat a lot of plants. They can look like they have really big bellies because of all the fiber in their diets. Inside those big bellies are digestive systems that are a little different from ours. In both gorillas and humans, the colon is part of the large intestine. It is responsible for absorbing water and some of the nutrients from the food we've eaten before we get rid of the leftover waste. The colon takes up about 20 percent of a human's digestive tract but about 50 percent of a gorilla's digestive tract. This helps gorillas process all those plants they eat.
GORILLA SPECIES
BASICS
Gorillas are a type of primate. This is a group of animals that includes humans, apes, monkeys, lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers. There are four subspecies of gorillas. In the wild, gorillas are found living in a region of Africa along the equator. Two subspecies of gorillas are from the eastern section of this region, and two are from the western part.
The eastern gorillas include the mountain and eastern lowland gorillas. (Eastern lowland gorillas are also known as Grauer's gorillas.) The western gorillas include the Cross River and western lowland gorillas.
Kwan and his family are western lowland gorillas. Their scientific name is Gorilla gorilla gorilla. Although western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, there are still more of them in the wild than any other subspecies. Western lowland gorillas are the only gorillas found in zoos anywhere in the world.
GORILLA FAMILY
TROOPS
Kwan is the leader of a "family" troop. In zoos and in the wild, a western lowland gorilla family troop usually has one silverback, a few adult females (known as a harem), and a bunch of kids. The adult females are all the silverback's mates. The troop also includes the females' young offspring, ranging from infants to teenagers. The current silverback may not be the father of all the offspring in the troop.
Like a troop of performers, scouts, or soldiers, wild gorillas are constantly on the move, stopping at good places to eat and sleep along the way. If they find a favorite food or an especially good variety of foods growing somewhere, they may stay put for a couple of days.
When they rest, gorillas make sleeping nests. The gorillas shape whatever plants are handy into comfortable places to curl up. They often sleep on the ground for daytime naps but up in the trees at night for safety.
At the time this book was written, there were seven individuals in Kwan's troop: Kwan, his harem of three adult females (Rollie, Bana, and Bahati), and Kwan's three daughters (Patty, Nayembi, and Bella). While Kwan's troop doesn't experience the same threats to their survival as do wild gorillas, their daily activities are similar — and their levels of activity are almost identical. The members of Kwan's family eat, sleep, play, and problem-solve with one another, moving between different parts of their habitat throughout the day. These zoo gorillas make nests for themselves, too, using cardboard, cloth, and mounds of shaved, thin curls of aspen fiber called wood wool.
In the wild, western lowland gorilla troops are highly dynamic — their membership changes often. Adult females come and go, sometimes bringing kids with them from a previous family. Another silverback may challenge the current leader, taking over the troop or splitting it apart. Gorillas are born and gorillas die. Teenagers eventually leave their childhood troops. These young adults sometimes join up with other single gorillas for a while and then move on again, in order to start their own families.
Zoo gorilla troops can be very dynamic, too. Over the past five years, for instance, Kwan's troop changed quite a bit. During this time, his three little daughters were born. Four adult females joined his troop while a total of four other adult females — and Kwan's grown son — left it.
SILVERBACKS
Only male gorillas become silverbacks, and every male gorilla who lives long enough will become a silverback. This generally happens by the age of twelve, when a broad band of the hair on a male gorilla's back turns silver-gray. This literal silver back signals to other gorillas that this is an adult male who is now old enough to have kids.
In a family troop, male and female gorillas have different jobs. As babies grow, families help them learn how to survive, as well as how to fulfill their expected roles. A female will need to learn the many skills involved in being a good mate, mother, and ally. A male will need to learn how to be a good troop leader.
In a family troop, a silverback is always at the top of the social hierarchy. There is a good reason for this. The females and all their children depend on the silverback's leadership for survival. He finds them good food. He protects the troop. He decides where they go and when. He helps set and reinforce the social ranking of everyone in the group. He is the peacekeeper and has the final word in settling any social disagreements within the troop. He must be a teacher on top of all this, too, making sure the kids learn how to survive and thrive.
Because his family lives in a zoo, Kwan doesn't have to find food for them, but every day he must do a good job at all the rest of a silverback's duties. In the process, he has to prove to his family that he is wise and fair. He needs to show good judgment in keeping everyone safe and content. If he can't do this, he will not be able to earn the respect of the rest of the troop and keep everything running smoothly.
For instance, each time a new adult female joins his group, Kwan must show everyone that he is being highly vigilant. He has to let the newcomer know that he is the boss and she cannot do anything without his permission until he believes she can be trusted. This reassures everyone else in the family. However, Kwan also has to convince the new arrival that he would be a good mate for her. He has to be nice to her as well as stern about who is in charge. Each time the family expands, the silverback must keep everyone satisfied and safe.
This is true when a baby is born, too. A good silverback is extremely protective of a new mother and their newborn baby. He will stay close to them and keep the other gorillas in the troop away from them. His job over the coming months is to make sure that everyone is careful around these most vulnerable members of his family.
Experience helps a silverback become a good dad. Kwan has a grown son named Amare. Kwan learned a lot while raising him. Kwan is not only older now but also more socially savvy as a result of this previous parenting experience. He is able to be a more relaxed father for his younger kids.
It takes a long time to become a confident silverback. Males start learning how to be the leader of a troop when they are very young. They never really stop learning.
INFANTS AND JUVENILES
In North American zoos, the median life expectancy for a male gorilla is 31.1 years. That means that half of the male gorillas do not make it past the age of 31.1. The other half live longer than that. The median life expectancy for a female gorilla is 37.4 years. A number of zoo gorillas — all female — have made it past the age of 55. Wild western gorillas have estimated life spans of 30 to 40 years.
Much of a gorilla's development is similar to a human's development, but faster. For instance, gorillas have baby teeth and then they get adult, permanent teeth, just like us. But their teeth come in faster than ours. Gorillas start getting teeth when they are a little over two months old. Humans are usually closer to six months old when that happens.
The emotional part of a gorilla's development is similar to ours, too. In general, adult gorillas dote on their babies. Gorilla infants are lavished with attention, although they don't usually start interacting with the silverback until they learn how to walk and climb on their own. Instead, gorilla babies start out being cared for exclusively by their mothers, and sometimes other females who pitch in.
Gorilla infants can hold on to their moms' hair very tightly from the moment they are born. The babies are carried by their mothers up against the mother's stomach until they are at least four months old. After that, babies usually ride along on their moms' backs. They may also wrap themselves around one of their mother's arms or legs. Sometimes babies are so well camouflaged against their mothers, you might only notice them because of a little white tuft of hair on their bottoms. They are born with this distinctive patch. It disappears when they get a few years older.
Mothers keep their infant gorillas close so they can be protected from all sorts of dangers, including other gorillas who might be a little too energetic, careless, or even jealous. But there is another reason gorilla moms keep their babies close. All primates, including humans, need the feeling of being held, of being touched. We will not survive without it. In fact, gorilla mothers use lots of touching to teach their kids. Research shows that gorillas gently touch babies and toddlers around the face and especially the jaw and chin much more frequently than they touch older gorillas' faces. Gorillas learn mostly by watching one another. Touching the baby in this area is a way of saying, "Look — I want to show you something."
Gorilla kids continue to be physically and emotionally close with their mothers for years to come. They ride on their moms' backs until they are about two and a half years old and nurse until they're about three years old. Zoo gorillas may drink their mothers' milk longer than this, though. Zoo gorillas don't have to grow up as fast as wild gorillas.
Just around the time they are weaned, the little white tuft of hair on infant gorillas' bottoms disappears. When this happens, a gorilla toddler becomes old enough to be called a juvenile. Juveniles generally have stronger relationships with adult females and other gorilla kids than they have with the silverback. The older the gorilla kids get, though, the more they will engage with the silverback, too.
Kwan lived with his mother, Hope, and father, Carlos, until he was nine years old. Kwan was the only kid in his family of three adult females plus his dad. It was through their example that Kwan began to learn what it meant to be a family — and to be the silverback in charge.
GORILLA
PLAY
Much of a zoo gorilla's early life is focused on play. Young gorillas love to play — by themselves and with others. In zoos, adults frequently join in the fun: wrestling, chasing, and interacting with objects together. Play is its own reward, but it also helps develop relationships and skills that can be vital in the coming years. When there are no other kids in a troop, adults — including the silverback — seem to make up for it. In the wild, adult gorillas do not play as much as they do in zoos, perhaps because they are so busy finding their next meal and looking out for predators.
How can you tell if gorillas are playing? Young gorillas have an open, loose mouth and show their teeth when they play. Sometimes you can see them drawing themselves up to look big, like they're taking a deep breath, then launching themselves onto another object — or a playmate. Clapping, drumming on surfaces, and smacking things all mean "Come on, let's have some fun!"
Young gorillas may also playfully beat their chests. This means they're feeling really full of themselves. It's like saying, "Ha! Look at me! I'm so great!" Gorillas make a cup with their hands when they beat their chests. It makes a pok-pok-pok sound. Gorillas laugh, too, especially when they're being tickled. Their laugh is a rapid panting sound. It's like breathing in and out very quickly while saying "heh" each time you inhale and exhale, over and over again: heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.
If you're not sure whether gorillas are playing or fighting, it's almost certainly play. Fights are not uncommon, though, and when they happen, they're fast and furious. There may be some bite wounds, but individuals are rarely seriously hurt.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Gorillas Up Close by Christena Nippert-Eng, John Dominski, Frederick Grier, Jim Hornor, Eugene Limb, Sally Limb, Miguel Martinez. Copyright © 2016 Christena Nippert-Eng. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction 7
Kwan 14
Gorillas and Humans: Some Differences 20
Gorilla Species Basics 22
Gorilla Family Troops 24
Silverbacks 30
Infants and Juveniles 34
Gorilla Play 42
Teenagers 46
Young Adults and Bachelor Troops 50
Bachelor Troops in Zoos 56
Meet Some Bachelors 62
Adult Female Gorillas 66
Rollie 70
Surrogate Moms and Surrogate Troops 74
The Gorilla Surrogate Program 78
Zoo Gorilla Names 81
Looking Out for One Another 84
Bona 88
Patty and Nayembi 92
Making Gorilla History 96
Bahati 101
Hierarchy Among Females 104
Balancing Power in a Troop 110
Gorilla Habitats 114
Kwan's Outdoor Area 118
Kwan's indoor Area 122
The Bachelors' indoor Area 124
The Bachelors' Outdoor Area 126
Gorilla Introductions 128
A Day in the Life of a Zoo Gorilla 130
Special Days 134
What Gorillas Eat 136
How Gorillas Eat 138
Feeding Curiosity 142
Daily Training 148
Training for Research on How Gorillas Think 149
The Gorilla Species Survival Plan 152
Tips for Identification 156
Tips for Watching and Photographing 158
When They Were Younger 160
Resources for Your Own Gorilla Research 164
Acknowledgments 169
Author's Note 170
About the Authors 172
Index 174