The Eastern lowland gorillas can be found in Kahuzi-Biega national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientifically known as Grauer’s gorillas. This is also the largest of the four gorilla subspecies.
D.R. Congo is the second-largest country in Africa after Algeria and it boasts both Mountain gorillas and Eastern lowland gorillas. The large forests in DR Congo inhabit different wildlife species with the major ones being the gorillas. Kahuzi-biega national park is one of the national parks in this country and is well known for harboring these rare endangered Eastern gorillas.
The park sits on an extensive area of 600,000ha and is occupied by tropical rainforests, bamboo and sub-alpine prairies with heather. As the name suggests, the park covers two mountains – Kahuzi and Biega. The Eastern lowland gorillas live at an altitude between 2100m to 2500m above sea level.
Eastern low land gorillas are the largest subspecies of gorillas and as per now are the largest living primates in the world. In terms of weight, a female gorilla weighs about 76kg and a male weighs between 156kg to 250kg. The height of a male gorilla stands between 1.69m to 196m while the females can reach 1.6m.
The Eastern low land gorillas mainly feed on plants for most of the time where they feed on leaves, fruits, bark, stem and this means they are herbivores; they also feed on insects like ants and termites. The Eastern low land gorillas live in large groups known as families. Interestingly, the Eastern low land gorillas can be found in mountainous areas and low land forested areas, unlike the mountain gorillas which are only found in mountainous areas.
In terms of behavior, Eastern lowland gorillas are peaceful, social and calm creatures which live in groups, under the leadership of silverbacks. The silverback is in charge of the group in a way of offering protection, mating the females among others. Like other gorillas, Eastern low land gorillas also get misunderstandings within the group and end up splitting forming sub groups, mainly under the leadership of a young black back.
Like human beings, a female gorilla gives birth to a single infant after a gestation period of 8 and a half months. Breastfeeding takes about 3 years and the infants stay with the mothers for about 3 to 4 years. This proves that humans share 98% of DNA with these primates.
There was a decline in the population of these gorillas due to poaching for meat and civil wars but recently the government of D.R. Congo has done a great job in promoting peace and security throughout the country. The efforts of protecting these primates alongside other wildlife are done by park rangers and defense forces.
Therefore, one can take a safari to Kahuzi-Biega national park to able visit the lowland gorillas through trekking. Visitors are required to have booked trekking permits in advance and the day of trekking will begin with a briefing at the designated area and then head to the forest for about 3 to 5 hours and an hour will be with a face to face interaction with these gorillas.
Our team is available and willing to help you to organize a safari that will take you to trek these largest primates in the world located in Democratic Republic of Congo.
