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Western Lowland Gorillas are the smallest subspecies of Gorillas native to western Central Africa. They're covered in black/brown hair and black skin. Males standing upright can reach heights of around 1.65 meters (females around 1.50) on average and weigh around 150kg (females 120kg). Males are called "silverbacks" due to the grey coloration of the hair on their backs.

Western Lowland Gorillas live in small groups within their home range and frequently travel depending on available food. They aren't territorial and home ranges can overlap with other groups. A group typically consists of a silverback, multiple females and offspring. When they reach sexual maturity, males may form bachelor groups or stay solitary for a while; females move between groups until both settle down. Females frequently display sexual behaviour even during non-reproductive times. Usually a single offspring is born after a pregnancy of about nine months.

Western Lowland Gorillas are generally calm and not aggressive unless disturbed. However, an alpha-male silverback challenged by a competitor or threatened by humans will attempt to intimidate their opponent through a display of their raw strength by standing upright, throwing things, charging and pounding his chest while roaring or making other loud noise.

Gorillas have shown their capability of using tools. They use sticks to extract food out of holes or to measure the depth of a body of water. One of the most famous animals in the world was a female gorilla named Koko, born in San Francisco Zoo in 1971. She was taught sign-language by animal psychologist Francine Patterson. Over the course of her life, she learned over 1,000 signs and could connect up to eight words to form expressions of want, need, thought and responses. She passed away on the 19th of June 2018.

The Western Lowland Gorilla, as well as the other Gorilla subspecies, are critically endangered. They're very important to the ecosystems of the forests they inhabit as they act as seed dispensers because they travel around three to five kilometers every day, though they're hunted for the bushmeat trade and their habitat is destroyed through logging. They're also vulnerable to diseases such as Ebola. Captive gorillas are often stressed due to various factors that are unnatural to them, such as routine husbandry and feeding conditions, unusual social groups and a very restricted home area. This stress leads to abnormal behaviour like eating disorders, aggression or self-injury.