![male silverback gorilla male silverback gorilla](https://pulitzercenter.org/sites/default/files/02-21-18/dscf2298.jpg)
Mountain gorillas are also at risk from poachers. Habitat loss takes away the gorillas’ source of food and shelter, and diminished territory to roam in can affect their breeding patterns. For the poverty-stricken communities living around the gorilla habitat it is the forest that provides them with many of their basic human needs, and in the war torn areas of DR Congo these needs are exaggerated.
![male silverback gorilla male silverback gorilla](https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/male-silverback-gorilla-a-magnificent-note-to-self-eu.jpg)
Today, mountain gorillas are threatened not due to a demand for their meat or their infants, but due to a demand for the lush forest in which they live. Habitat loss, poaching, civil unrest and disease They are largely herbivorous and eat a variety of shoots, fruit and leaves – wild celery is a big favourite.īwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga National Park, Uganda Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda Virunga National Park, DRC Like all gorillas, mountain gorillas are highly sociable and live in family groups led by the dominant silverback. When they reach maturity (at around 12 or 13 years old), males develop the characteristic silver fur on their back that gives them the name ‘silverback’. Adult males can weigh up to 200kg (31st 9lb), and are roughly twice the size of adult females. They have longer, thicker fur than other gorilla subspecies, allowing them to live in colder temperatures. Mountain gorillas live in the misty mountain forests of the Virunga Massif and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in central Africa. Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo