Western Gorilla - Physical Description

Physical Description

Compared to its eastern cousin, the western gorilla is slightly shorter, weighs less, has a more slender form, and has lighter colored fur. The western lowland gorilla can be brown or greyish with a yellowish forehead. It also has an overhanging tip on its nose, which the eastern gorilla does not have. Males typically measure 160–170 cm (63–67 in) tall and weigh 140 kg (310 lb). Females measure 120–140 cm (47–55 in) tall and weigh 60–80 kg (130–180 lb). The largest western gorillas can weigh up to 200 kg (440 lb) and 98 kg (220 lb) in each sex, respectively. The Cross River gorilla differs from the western lowland gorilla in both skull and tooth dimensions. It is also about 10–15 cm (3.9–5.9 in) taller and 20–35 kg (44–77 lb) heavier, but is still smaller and lighter than the mountain gorilla and the eastern lowland gorilla, which is considered the largest subspecies of the gorilla and the largest living primate.

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