Joan Jones, age 10, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, for her question: .
How do gorillas differ from apes?
How does a 12 year old girl differ from a human being? The answer is, she doesn't. She just happens to be a human being who belongs in a special group of persons all girls aged 12 years. A gorilla happens to be a certain type of ape. When you reach your 13th birthday, you automatically will graduate to the next age group. But a gorilla will remain a gorilla of the ape group, all the days of his life.
Most people think the animals that most closely resemble human beings are the great apes. They are classified in the primate group of the animal kingdom and are considered to be more advanced than the various monkeys, who also belong in this group. The primate order is subdivided into different families for the lemurs and marmosets, the macaques and various other monkey types.
The apes, alias the great apes, are classified in the primate family Pongidae. There are just four of them. The long armed gibbon is classed as a great ape and so is the clever chimpanzee. The bulky orangutan is a great ape and the fourth member of the ape clan is the greatest by far none other than the burly gorilla.
The four famous apes differ from the lesser monkeys in several days. They have no tails and their brains occupy a larger proportion of their skulls, which gives them more of what we humans call intelligence. They have superior long, strong arms but no cheek pouches for toting snacks:
The gorilla is the largest of the great apes and though he looks like a fearsome fighter, actually he is a rather peaceable character. An old male gorilla may stand six feet tall and weigh 450 pounds. He has a nude head and though his thick legs are sturdy enough, they are too creak to support his bulky body for standing or walking.
He has mighty muscles in his long, thick arms and more in his enormous chest. He walks on all fours, using the knuckles of his big, black, hairy hands as front feet. Isis huge black, face is almost bare and the rest of his body is covered with coarse black hair. As a male gorilla ages, patches of hair on his chest and legs tend to turn grey.
The female gorilla is smaller and all members of the family are strict vegetarians. They are creatures of tropical forests of Africa, at home in the eastern mountains of the Congo and along the coast. In their leafy forests, the gorillas do not menace other animals and the male attacks only when molested. He makes fearsome faces, thumps his chest and utters blood curdling grunts while his family has time to retreat to safety. No animal of the jungle cares to threaten this great ape and his only serious enemy is gone.
A gorilla family includes one male, several females and their young. Together they forage for fruit and other vegetation during the day. At night they build platforms of sticks and leaves and sleep high in the jungle trees. The female bears one baby at a time. In 12 years, the young gorilla is mature and, barring accidents, can expect to live to the age of 23.