Mountain gorilla reproduction involves the stages female gorillas pass through from copulation to birth.
How do mountain gorillas give birth?
Similar to their close relatives’ humans, gorillas usually give birth to single infants. However, producing twins is possible but extremely rare. In fact, twins are looked at as blessings since they are rare. The infants are born throughout the year but usually at night though the mortality rate for the newly born is high with a percentage of 40%.
Adult females usually have a spacing of 4 years to have their next child born. But, because of the rate at which the infants die, they stay with just one offspring in a 6-8 years span. The newly born usually weighs 2kgs with sparsely scattered hair on their pale gray-pink color. In most cases the male and female infants are similar and they stay around their mothers for a period of 4 years.
Fertilization period of mountain gorillas
The sexual hormones of mountain gorillas are aroused as soon as the ape is between the ages of 10-12. This definitely activates the fertilization period of the amazing forest wanderers. During the ovulation stage, the female approaches the male for mating however the male can also initiate the mating process. The female ape is next ready for fertilization after the infant has transitioned to a juvenile and that’s usually after four years of being pampered and looked after.
What is the Gestation period of mountain gorillas?
Typically, mountain gorillas have a gestation period of 8.5 months. Since they are almost similar to humans with about 98% relation with the human DNA, gorillas have a gestation period that is almost as long as that of humans. During the 8.5-9 months they experience a lot of discomfort that comes along with the pregnancy.
Offspring of mountain gorillas
Mountain gorillas bare between 2- 6 offspring in their fertilization period because some of them tend to die as infants as they are killed by new silverbacks and some succumb to the Mountain’s harsh environment while growing up. Their babies are usually 1.8kg. Gorilla kids at birth are as vulnerable as human babies and need unconditional care and support. At around 3.5 months, the infants have transitioned into young gorillas hence their deity progresses from breast milk to leaves, fruits, roots, plants and shoots.
Most female gorillas attain maturity at the age of 10 while the majority of the males attain it at 12 years. While the gorilla male is maturing, he gets a lot of transformation from the gorilla blackback worship to the silverback praise. A silverback gorilla becomes one once it obtains silver stripes on its back, a huge bare chest and a crest of fur on its head. In most cases, male gorillas abandon the group to establish their own family or overthrow the current silverback when they feel like they are ready to start up a family. A fully grown male mountain gorilla attains up to 180kgs and a female weighs just 90kgs.
Why see Mountain Gorillas with us?
Selecting your next gorilla trekking tour is guaranteed to be seamless with Standard Safaris. One reason why is that we have a licence from Uganda Tourism Board to operate in Uganda. This allows us to directly work with Uganda Wildlife Authority for gorilla permit acquisition. It is also key in ensuring that we deliver authentic and expertly coordinated gorilla trekking tours. Our backing is the 5-star TripAdvisor reviews from clients who praise our guiding and reliability. So, if you are interesting in seeing a female mountain gorilla or gorillas in general, contact us to customize your itinerary.
