Kathra Bostick, age 13, of Sarasota, Fla., for her question:
IS THE GORILLA AN APE?
Yes he is. Of the 200 or so members of the monkey clan, only four are classed as apes. The gorilla is the biggest and also the strongest of this highly sophisticated group. A grown male may be as tall as a tallish man and twice as heavy. He looks somewhat like a hair raising nightmare, though usually he is a peaceable person.
The clever monkeys, large and small, are classed as primates because, from our point of view, they seem to be the most advanced members of the animal kingdom. The gibbon and the gorilla, the orangutan and the chimpanzee are called anthropoid, or manlike, apes. From our point of view they are the most advanced of the advanced primates.
The great apes have extra long arms, clever hands and feet and no tails. They live in tropical forests, feeding mainly on fruits and tender greenery. The skinny gibbon walks upright with his arms held high above his head. The others use the knuckles of their hands to walk around on all fours.
The gorilla belongs to the tropical jungles of Africa. He is a big, black, hairy fellow with an enormous chest. A large male may stand six feet and weigh 450 pounds. His skull has a bony crest, which gives the appearance of a very high forehead. The hair on his back is streaked with white.
His huge, scowling face, with those glaring eyes and that wide toothy mouth would never win a beauty contest. What's more, when threatened, he advances with blood curdling yells, thumping his chest. This nightmare appearance is enough to scare away his fiercest foe.
However, almost always this fearsome display is merely for show. Actually the mighty gorilla is a very peaceable fellow who prefers to ignore the rough stuff. His only serious enemy is man the hunter, and the only thing that really scares him is water which he abhors.
The average gorilla family includes an adult male, several smaller females and their growing children. They share several miles of territory, though other gorilla families may visit and mingle for a while. So far as we know, the fierce looking males never fight each other and rarely if ever get into serious fights with other animals.