Zoo Activity at The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens Essay

Zoo Activity at The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens - Essay Example 1. Gorilla - Gorilla gorilla They are regarded as the largest of all living primates. They have been found to confine largely to the forested regions of central Africa. Two varieties: highland and lowland. They show marked SEXUAL DIMORPHISM. Males weigh up to 400 pounds and females at 200 pounds. Weight makes them semi-QUADRUPEDAL knuckle walkers and majorly terrestrial. Family groups comprise of one or more large silverback males, a few females and sub-adult offspring. They are gentle and shy vegetarians. However, when provoked males will attack to defend their group (Groves, Wilson, and Reeder, 123-129). The majority of gorillas in zoos are western gorilla Gorilla gorilla. The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens had a gorilla with brownish-gray pelage color with reddish highlights. The male weighed around 140 kilograms while the female weighed around 75 kilograms. Its locomotion was quadrupedally, with a special kind of quadrupedal gait called knuckle-walking (Fleagle, 148). The gorilla has a polygynous mating system and unimale social system. Both the female and male gorillas emigrated from the NATAL GROUPS (Larsen 124). Immature gorillas spent much of their time playing, resting and GROOMING each other showing true ALTRUISM for about 20 minutes, although they tended to groom direct siblings. The silver-back male made roars to show stress or threat making the group to hide.