Eastern Gorilla - Distribution and Ecology

Distribution and Ecology

The eastern gorilla occurs in the lowland and mountain rainforests and subalpine forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, southwestern Uganda and Rwanda, within the triangle between the Lualaba River, Lake Edward and Lake Tanganyika. The eastern gorilla prefers forests with a substrate of dense plant material.

Eastern gorillas are herbivorous, with a heavily foliage based diet . They have smaller home ranges than western gorillas as foliage is more abundant than fruit. They are diurnal but the majority of foraging occurs in the morning and late afternoon. At night they build nests by folding over vegetation, usually on the ground.