How do Gorillas feed

Gorillas are big and strong and you might wonder how do gorillas feed which make them such strong and muscular. Gorillas are herbivores by nature which means that they mainly eat plants. Mountain gorillas are not carnivores they do not eat meat or hunt other animals for food. Albertine Tours has gathered complete information on “How Do Gorillas Feed” which will give you an overview of Gorilla Diet. We have listed down all the fruits and plants that are part of the Gorilla Diet along with their favorite food, the amount of food they eat and the minor diet variation that exists among its different species.

How do gorillas feed?

Gorillas are herbivorous and mainly consume plant material as their diet.
It include leaves, stems, roots, young branches, buds, barks, piths, seeds and fruits.
Gorillas also eat insects like ants and termites.
Occasionally, gorillas also eat soil and ash in a little amount that possibly helps in regulating their digestive system.

What Kind of Food do Gorillas Eat

As Gorillas are herbivorous in nature, they predominantly consume vegetarian kind of food.
Gorillas are also very selective and do not eat a vegetation as a whole, instead they may only eat the foliages, stems, roots, fruits or pith of a particular plant.

What do Gorillas Eat in the Wild – Gorillas Diet in the Wild

- The diet of Gorilla in the wild depend on vegetations found in their habitat and on the season of the year.
- As not all plants are evergreen, so in the wild the diet of gorillas change with season.

Gorillas also eat some invertebrates like ants, termites, grubs, caterpillars and larvae.

What do Gorillas Eat in the Rainforests

In rainforests, gorillas eat leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, fruits, berries, barks and pith of bamboo.
They also eat insects especially ants, termites and their larvae.

What do Gorillas Eat in the Zoo

A healthy and balanced diet given to gorillas in zoo often include the following components:

Fruits (7 to 8 %)
Green leafy vegetables (50 to 60 %)
Other vegetables (15 to 20 %)
Specially made biscuits known as high-fiber primate biscuits (about 15%)

The quantity of these components, especially of fruits and biscuits which are rich in calories, are changed according to the health condition of a gorilla.
They are also given eggs and nuts.
For drinking, they are sometimes given herbal tea and sugarcanes beside fresh water.

What do Gorillas Like to Eat

As Gorillas are herbivorous in nature so they like to eat vegetations.
Among vegetarian stuff, fruits are the favorite food of gorillas and it make about 67% part of their diet if available in abundance.
Mountain Gorillas also like to eat the leaves, little shoots and sap of bamboo.
Ants and termites are the invertebrates mostly eaten by Gorillas, however, they also rarely eat grubs, larvae and caterpillars.

What Plants do Gorillas Eat

- As all the subspecies of gorilla do not live in the same habitat, so the vegetations they consume vary according to their habitat.
- Every species and even sub-species of Gorilla consume different number and species of plants and insects, which indicate that they have a food culture.

Western Gorillas consume high-fiber diet including foliages, stems, barks, flowers, fruits, piths, insects and soil.
Eastern Gorillas live at high altitude in the montane and sub-montane forests of East Central Africa where fruits are shortly available, so a large part of their diet comprises of foliages.
Fruits of the genera Dialium, Landolphia, Chrysophyllum and Tetrapleura make a large part of the diet of Gorillas if available in abundance.
In case of insufficient availability of fruits, they consume woody vegetations and low-quality herbs.
In dry season, they eat vegetation having more fibers like the bark and leaves of Aframomum and Palisota.
According to suggestions made on the basis of some pharmacological and ethnographic studies, some specific foods (such as the seeds and fruits of many Cola species containing caffeine) eaten by Gorillas possibly have medicinal value.