Talk:Mountain gorilla

Conservation: Threats and Conservation Methods updated

We have made a number of updates to the Conservation section as a whole. We felt that each of the threats needed to have more depth and analysis (i.e. references to scientific literature) in order to understand any conservation activities.

• Poaching - inclusion of a referenced case study (the 'Taiping 4').
• Habitat loss - addition of information regarding the impact of pyrethrum growth, isolation of groups or 'clans' of the sub-population and the resulting lack of genetic diversity.
• Disease - discussion of the dangers of human contact with gorillas given their genetic similarities and the increased risk of disease transmission - also a note about how this danger can be minimised with good management. The impact of livestock in the region is also noted.
• War and Civil Unrest - this section was only very briefly addressed previously, despite the obvious effects that regional instability would have had on the subpopulation. We have included information about simulation modelling of the impact of war and unrest on habitat and population, along with information about direct impacts such as increases in poaching, pressures of increased population on ecologically vulnerable regions through the influx of refugees and the effect of land mines.

Following on from this, we updated the section on conservation methods. The information about Community-based conservation was minimal in spite of its significant role in protecting the gorilla habitat - as such, we have included further information about collaborative management processes and community engagement. There was also very little information about the impact of eco-tourism which has been particularly significant in providing the resources to carry out effective conservation. The previous separation of 'active' and 'theoretical' conservation made it difficult to discuss their impacts as the two halves of an holistic approach.

Update to conservation introduction

Updated conservation introduction to include overall impact on population size of conservation efforts over the past 2 decades and indicate conflicts between researchers about these figures — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cinderski (talk • contribs) 02:43, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

I would talk about virunga national park

Corrections to first paragraph

I'm going to make some corrections to the first paragraph - since the Bwindi population has yet to be firmly classified as a separate subspecies, they deserve to be included in the count, meaning that we can add their 320 in to make 700 in the world.

Edit Summary - 21 May 2004

I added the taxobox and updated the classifications. The article contents is only a very rough beginning, and I will continue to work on it. (I have seen works in progress dealt with in a few different ways, if one is preferred, please let me know.)
The following thoughts are in addition/response to the guidelines given at WikiProject Primates and used in primate articles (see Lemurine Owl Monkey & White-throated Capuchin -- both great examples).

• Description (physical, behavioral) - what makes this (group of) critter(s) different from its close relatives? Include here evidence about cognitive capacities.
  These descriptions should be separated (at least for any/all of the Hominids), both due to the amount of living places

- where does it live? how broadly does it roam? maps are good 
Some articles group habitat and diet as a heading. Again, these should be separated. Possibly. There are a few different angles that a description of habitat could be approach from, including:

• Research & Population Estimates - Include here any significant field research and census data.
  This (along with the following) is my addition to the list.

• Conservation - What impact have humans had on this species? Include here any threats (habitat destruction, poaching, disease, etc.) and conservation work.
  Unless I have missed something, they are either vague or absent from the current one. The importance to/impact on humans should be addressed here.

• Cultural, Religious, Economic, etc. Importance - what impact has it had on humans? Include here use for experimental purposes that do not relate to other headings.
  Experimental purposes and/or captive life are significant topics (again, at least for the Hominids) for reasons which include: the majority of gorilla subspecies do not survive in captivity, the knowledge gained from lab research.

These thoughts are primarily in reference to the Mountain Gorilla article, but may apply to the others (esp. those mentioned). I would appreciate any (constructive) comments. Lea 13:50, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

Well, I changed my mind about / reworked some of the things I mentioned above. Regardless, I have put up what I have so far. I know it needs a little work as far as format (at least). Lea 03:51, 31 May 2004 (UTC)

Sleep Habits

The current article says "Only infants sleep in the same nest as their mothers." But Dian Fossey, in Gorillas in the Mist, describes adults sleeping together on numerous occasions. --DavidNYC 20:09, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Tourism

Should this article maybe go into more detail about Gorilla Tourism? and possibly threats to the Gorilla with regards to the Rwanda War? One of the reasons for the gorillas continued surivial is arugably due to the gorilla tourism and the exposure it creates and economic benefits for the local communities? I'm not a expert, but maybe an expert could create a section on this? --Mezaco 16:20, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Scientific name

There are tons of conflictions from sources regarding the scientific name of the mountain gorilla. Anyone know which one is actually acurate? Cabound 22:55, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

The listed name is correct, according to the last few publications at least. - UtherSRG (talk) 03:49, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Good article candidate

I've nominated this article for GA status. I actually just came across it randomly while looking at endangered species. It looks to be stable, well-sourced, well-written, and overall a very interesting read. ♠ SG →Talk 14:05, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, I passed it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alientraveller (talk • contribs) 17:01, 4 June 2007

GA Reassessment

This discussion is transcluded from Talk:Mountain Gorilla/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.

This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force in an effort to ensure all listed Good articles continue to meet the Good article criteria. In reviewing the article, I have found there are some issues that may need to be addressed, listed below. I will check back in seven days. If these issues are addressed, the article will remain listed as a Good article. Otherwise, it may be delisted (such a decision may be challenged through WP:GAR). If improved after it has been delisted, it may be nominated at WP:GAN. Feel free to drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions, and many thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this article thus far.

Although the article adheres to various MoS, it appears that there are multiple "citation needed" tags which would require them to be addressed in order to remain as GA. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 17:36, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

In addition, I think the "Summer 2007 slaying" section does not need to stand alone. If there are similar incidents (attacks by humans on mountain gorillas or vice versa), then perhaps they should be compiled together. When talking about the entire species, having an entire section devoted to just two gorillas who were killed may not be the best idea. Perhaps a notable events section or something to that effect. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 19:52, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I will now delist as there is no improvement on this article for over a month. OhanaUnited^{Talk page} 05:07, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

If you really wanted to see improvement on this article, you might have provided a little more notice to people watching the article than an edit summary on the article talk page saying "on hold". Rlendog (talk) 19:10, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Kenny vs. Spenny

They had a competition for "Who can wear a gorilla costume the longest" and Spenny talked about the Mountain Gorilla throught the whole episode, should it be mentioned? KingRaven (>$.$)> (talk) 07:10, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Stray refs

These were at the top of the article, not sure why.

- Peregrine Fisher (talk) 15:59, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

References

Referencing a reproduction of this page?

I'm pretty sure the reference: "Mountain Gorilla Information". The Rainforests. Retrieved 2 February 2012. is just a reproduction of this page, and therefore is referencing itself. Jack (talk) 13:49, 2 February 2012 (UTC)

Interactions with Poachers

In the Behavior/Social Structure section there is a sentence pertaining to the silverback's ability to remove snares from other gorilla's feet and feet. However this behavior was recently observed in juveniles as well (source). I am unsure of where in the article this information would best be placed and I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts. Thanks, FifthCrow (talk) 18:40, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Comments

The mountain gorilla article is cited as a formerly good article. Upon reading, there are a few citations needed. The two largest sections are conservation and behavior, respectively. The behaviors are broken down into subsections including social structure, aggression, affiliation, vocalization, and fears. The behaviors are described in death and include citations. Within the subcategory of social structure, there is explanation of relatedness among group members in detail. Exploring the social relationships within a group and relating it to behavioral evolution can describe this even further. There should be a relationship between the altruism of members of a various group and their relatedness. The talk section has more short entries about edits and fewer posts regarding fact checking and source data. Historically, this article has been edited several times within the same month and was first established in 2004. Katims90 (talk) 19:46, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Lifespan? Age to sexual maturity? Gestation period? Number of offspring? How long offspring remain with mother? More? 74.127.201.16 (talk) 19:57, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Male gorillas are not only 4 feet 11 inches tall

Someone needs to change the average height listing because im pretty sure male mountain gorillas are taller than 5 feet. a more accurate average is around 5 ft 6 - 5 ft 7 inches tall for males. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bron668 (talk • contribs) 21:29, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Please look at Average HiLo48 (talk) 02:51, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Strength

While the African Wildlife Foundation does say that the Mountain Gorilla is 10 times stronger than the biggest American football players, this shouldn't be stated in the article because no one has ever tested gorilla strength - even if it had, the African Wildlife Foundation doesn't make any reference to it. Also, other organizations have different estimates. It's obvious they're probably much stronger than any human but since we can only guess it seems like a good idea to remove the mention of it. 69.158.136.218 (talk) 06:04, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Koko

Koko should not be mentioned in the fear section or anywhere in this article because she is a western lowland gorilla, not a mountain gorilla. 202.123.130.53 (talk) 12:02, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the explanation. It seems unlikely that information is really verified by the cited source; just go ahead and remove it.--Cúchullain ^t/c 12:55, 25 August 2014 (UTC)

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Stop citing guinness book of world records.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

There is no source to it and the book isn't even fucking visible, lol. Like I said it is also contradicted in the exact same paragraph.

Fully erect, males reach 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) in height, with an arm span of 2.3 m (7 ft 7 in) and weigh 155 kg (342 lb).[11] Even though no study was mentioned there, it is still more recent and more reliable than some goofy shit from 40 years ago. Or, if there's no sources for their height...don't give random numbers from stupid websites and keep it blank. Kikiopae (talk) 00:19, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

WP:PAYWALL is clear that simply because you can't access it isn't reason to remove it, especially when it is such information as this. Please employ polite language. If sources contradict each other, we ought to take that into account. 155 kg is within the given range. But anyway, we ought to find more modern material on this, instead of removing the information entirely. RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 17:06, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

Agree! And: whatever is written in the guinness book, is based on sources that was earlier published elsewhere. Lets look for these earlier sources. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 17:11, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

It deleted my reply, this system is irritating. The weight broadly matches but the height is 8 inches shorter and even juvenile gorillas seem taller than that, see selfies with rangers. In addition the largest height given with a source is huge compared to that size. Adult chimpanzees have been sourced as 150cm, something to note. Kikiopae (talk) 17:16, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

I looked for some sources, but I don't think I have access to journals in the field with my institution, so I have the following:

• [1] "SIZE: Standing height: 4 to 6 feet WEIGHT: 300 to 485 pounds" (no median/average/dimorphism details given)
• [2] "Physical Description Gorillas are the largest primate, with average lengths of 150 cm for females and 185 cm for males. They are highly sexually dimorphic, with females weighing 70 to 114 kg and males averaging 160 kg."
• [3] "HEIGHT 4 to 5 ½ feet when standing on two feet WEIGHT up to 440 lbs" (same limitations at NatGeo)

Both of the sources already in the article seem to not be too far off. We just need to reconcile this information together (of course, extreme examples such as "unconfirmed record of another individual, shot in 1932, that was 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in) and weighed 218.6 kg (482 lb)" are not representative). RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 18:44, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

The content on these websites is also taken from reliable sources, i.e. publications in a scientific journal. Selfies with rangers are not citeable here. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 18:53, 6 April 2021 (UTC) > I hope my revision solved this dispute. -- BhagyaMani (talk) 19:33, 6 April 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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