Western lowland gorillas feeding in streams and on savannas

Abstract

This paper is about two aspects of feeding by porillas which have not been previously been reported. These concern the western lowland sub-species, of which so little is yet known, even though it forms over 90% of the world's populations of gorillas. This neglect is perhaps due not only to the threatened status of mountain gorillas in East Africa, but also to the problems of limited visibility in a tropical forest habitat where groung vegetation can be very dense. The data collected as part of the first long-term project in West Africa, which began in October 1983 in the Lope reserve in central Gabon.The study-area encompassesboth forest and savanna (figure 1), thus providing an unusual combination of habitats(as 85% of Gabon is forested), where unhabituated porillas live in sympatry with chimpanzees. The data were obtained by analysing faeces, feeding trails, and by direct observation.