Among these teeth are strong sets of frontal canines and large molars in the back of the mouth for grinding fruits[4] and vegetables.

The genetic variant for Snowflake’s albinism was identified by the scientists as a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism located in a transmembrane region of SLC45A2.

As it is a recessive allele, and his parents were an uncle and niece who were both carriers, this revealed the first evidence of inbreeding in western lowland gorillas.

[9] Western lowland gorilla groups travel within a home range typically between 8 and 45 km2 (3 and 17 sq mi) in area.

[10][11] The group usually favours a certain area within the home range, but seems to follow a seasonal pattern depending upon the availability of ripening fruits and, at some sites, localised large open clearings (swamps and "bais").

He may stand upright, throw things, make aggressive charges, and pound his huge chest with open or cupped hands while barking out powerful hoots or unleashing a frightening roar.

[15] Female western lowland gorillas do not produce many offspring due to the fact that they do not reach sexual maturity until the age of 8 or 9.

[17] Female western lowland gorillas living in a group led by a single male have been observed to display sexual behavior during all stages of their reproductive cycle and during times of non-fertility.

While the use and manufacture of tools to extract ants and termites is a well-documented behavior in wild chimpanzees, it has never been observed in other great apes in their natural habitat and never seen in other primates in captivity.

It appears that they also plan the use of the tool, since they begin with one of the biggest sticks available and progressively modify it until it is the perfect fit for inserting into a hole that contains food.

This demonstrates the gorillas' acquisition of high level sensorimotor intelligence, similar to that of young human children.

In the couple of weeks before that, Koko had been using gestures that seemed like attempts at the signs taught, but were deemed as coincidental and random and not intended for the actual purpose.

Koko mastered more than 1,000 signs and was said to be able to connect up to eight words together to form a statement expressing wants, needs, thoughts, or simple responses.

They live in primary and secondary lowland tropical forest at elevations that extend from sea level up to 1,300 m (4,300 ft).

[27] The western lowland gorilla is primarily herbivorous, and its main diet consists of roots, shoots, fruit, wild celery, tree bark and pulp, which are found in the thick forest of Central and West Africa.

While defended as economically profitable for restaurants and local people, such hunting contributes greatly to the endangered status of the western lowland gorilla.

Logging also destroys gorilla habitats, although it may also provide increased herbaceous vegetation as a result of gaps in the tree cover.

However, those gorillas that do not reproduce may prove to be a valuable resource, since the use of assisted reproductive techniques helps to maintain genetic diversity in the limited populations in zoos.

This Ebola outbreak also affected the Maya Nord population (52 kilometres northwest from Lokoué) from 400 individuals to considerably fewer.

[37] In the northeastern part of the Republic of the Congo, western lowland gorillas are still being hunted for their bushmeat and the young for pets; five percent of the subspecies is killed each year because of this.

[39] Bush meat hunting and timber harvesting in the western lowland gorilla’s habitat have negatively affected the probability of its survival.

The WCS is also working in Congo and surrounding countries to limit the bush meat trade by enforcing laws and hunting restrictions and also helping the local people find new sources of protein.

[41] Use of both internal and external privacy screens on exhibit windows has been shown to alleviate stresses from visual effects of high crowd densities, leading to decreased stereotypic behaviors in the gorillas.

[43] Enrichment modifications to feed and foraging, where clover-hay is added to an exhibit floor, decrease stereotypic activities while simultaneously increasing positive food-related behaviors.

In captive gorillas, such frequent aberrant behaviors include eating disorders—such as regurgitation, reingestion and coprophagy—self-injurious or conspecific aggression, pacing, rocking, sucking of fingers or lip smacking, and overgrooming.

Finally, the study sought out to analyze the allele frequency spectrum (AFS) in western lowland gorillas.

HIV-1, is composed of four phylogenetic lineages, which at some point in time have independently gone through cross-species transmission of the SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus).

The outbreak was monitored in the Republic of Congo by Magdalena Bermejo and other field-based primatologists, as it also spread to humans through contact with bushmeat.

[57] The catastrophe led the World Conservation Union to designate the western lowland gorilla a critically endangered species.

Varying exposure to different Anopheles mosquitoes transmitting Plasmodium species is known to be the origin of malaria in western lowland gorillas.