Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei)

Gorillas are the world's largest primate and for years they've been portrayed as fearsome and aggressive beasts. But gorillas are actually gentle giants that have strong family ties and live on a vegetarian diet. The eastern gorilla has three subspecies: the mountain gorilla, the Bwindi gorilla and the eastern lowland gorilla.

Watch video clips from past programmes (2 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

About the Eastern Gorilla

The Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei) is a species of the genus Gorilla and the largest living primate. At present, the species is subdivided into two subspecies. The Eastern Lowland Gorilla (G. b. graueri) is the most populous, at about 16,000 individuals. The Mountain Gorilla (G. b. beringei) has only about 700 individuals. In addition, scientists are considering elevating the Bwindi gorilla population (which numbers about half of the Mountain Gorilla population) to the rank of subspecies.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Featured in a collection

  • David Attenborough's favourite moments

    David Attenborough's favourite moments from the last 30 years represent not only memorable personal experiences, but also the diversity of life on our planet and the rapidly changing technological face of broadcasting.

Scientific Classification

Class: Mammal (Mammalia)

Order: Primate (Primates)

Family: Hominidae

Genus: Gorilla

Species: Eastern Gorilla (beringei)

Other Gorilla

Where can I see them?

They can be found in the following habitats:

Conservation Status

The Eastern Gorilla is Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Decreasing

Year assessed: 2008

Explore the BBC

BBC © MMIX

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.