A full-grown gorilla, six-feet high and weighing 500 pounds, dressed in a heavy, black fur coat certainly looks threatening, but if you're kind to one and it gets to know you, it can be about as nice as a Shetland pony. A few people, studying their habits, have spent day after pleasant day with them in their African forest homeland.
Actually, wild gorillas are seldom seen as they are shy and disappear quickly when approached. As many as six family groups (a group being a male, two or three females and young ones) often live together, sharing feeding grounds. A male is much more powerful than a man, with massive bones, broad shoulders and long arms. Its open, vicious-looking mouth reveals strong jaws and tusk-like teeth, surrounded by a wrinkled, oily-black face with a large flat nose and furry ears. Underneath it all a rounded "pot-belly" stomach is much in evidence.
A frightening habit, never forgotten by those who have experienced it, is for a large male to let out an ear-splitting scream while thumping his hairy chest. When several more join in, it is easy to understand why a listener would consider them ferocious animals, but all this noise seems to be just that—harmless noise—merely "letting off steam."
Such big animals need lots of food, and most of the day is spent eating bamboo shoots, tree buds, various plants and vines, ferns, thistles and the wild celery which they particularly like. They are not meat eaters.
Females give birth each year or two to just one tiny baby, weighing less than four pounds, which clings to her chest but soon learns to ride on her back and has fun sliding down her sides. Groups of little ones play together, climbing and swinging on trees, or sliding down tree trunks. They often play while the parents take daytime naps. Each night the adults make new nests on the ground or in the lower branches of a tree, pulling grass and tender branches together, something like a huge bird's nest. But they only use them once and make a new one each night.
While gorillas and other apes look something like men, in no way are they related. The first chapter of the Bible makes it very plain that man was a separate creation, distinct from beasts, fish and birds. This is confirmed again by a verse in the New Testament, telling us plainly, "All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds." 1 Cor. 15:3939All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (1 Corinthians 15:39). Do not listen to those who try to teach otherwise. The Word of God is always true.