So while he was watching these ladies, his penis 'went up'. He has a soft spot for blond or greyish ladies. Since Bokito is hand reared, he's focused on females. He was looking at a few older ladies who were standing next to me. Once I saw a gorilla's penis in erection. There are several men in a group, so with them it's completely different. That is a different story with other great apes like the chimpanzee. In each group there is only 1 adult male so he doesn't have to prove himself to be allowed to mate. The reason they don't have a huge penis is because they don't have competition in a group. If they are sexually aroused, then it's only about 4 centimeters. I have seen many silverbacks lying down in front of me with their legs spread: but because of all the hair and the penis being so small, it just can't be seen. You can't see a silverback's penis very well. Something else about a silverback is something you wouldn't expect: the size of his penis. Watch a silverback when he's eating the top of is head is moving. His jaw muscles are attached to that crest. That's not because he has so many females and kids. It's impossible to follow them all day during a visit because of how it's constructed.Įvery silverback has a large sagittal crest on top of his head.

I don't like that zoo and the enclosure of the gorillas. I visit one bachelor group at a regular base (Safaripark Beekse Bergen) the other one (Ouwehands) I don't visit at a regular base. That development is also there with all males. In zoos with bachelors you see several silverbacks. They than steal as much as possible before the silverback returns.Įvery silverback has his own personality of course. Those cheeky kids (or even adults) also go to the silverback's spot when he's trying to get food from others. They just run away and hide somewhere where the silverback can't go. Every gorilla in a group immediately drops what he/she's holding. Believe me, he won't steal it, he just takes it. And if he sees another one with his favourite food and he wants it, he gets up to get it. He also stays away from arguments between a mom and kid (either one of their own or from another female).īesides above the silverback is the one who can claim all food if he wants to and sometimes he does (especially if it's his favourite food). The silverbacks I visit don't intervene when a kid has an argument with another kid. Sometimes it also is enough just to stand up and look at both ladies. But luckily he knows justice and if the higher ranked female is to blame, he punishes her. Most of the times he does that with the arguing female who's the lowest in ranking. Luckily that doesn't happen often, but if it does happen, he punishes one of the two by pushing her to the floor and biting her once. Most of the time that's when two (or more) of his females have an argument.

The tasks of a silverback in zoos: he keeps an eye on everything and everyone most of the time lying down, but also sitting. Another phrase I hate when people call the silverback (or other gorillas) 'that fat one'. In both zoos the silverback is the youngest one of the adults. It's always funny to hear people say 'that old one' about the silverbacks in Artis or Blijdorp. The turning grey with gorillas is slightly suppressed when a young male still lives with his dad.

My thought was 'that's not correct, because growing a beard happens to boys no matter if he's still living with his dad or not'. I don't remember where I heard it, but once someone told it can be compared to growing a beard with human males. He can have these grey hairs when he's 11. For instance, when a male moves from a family group at the age of 10 to his own group, he slowly turns grey. It's different with every silverback.Ī lot of people yell out 'look that old one' (or words alike) when they see the silverback in a zoo, but the grey hairs don't have anything to do with the age! Because of hormones a male turns grey, as soon as he's the only adult male in a group with females. Sometimes also a big part of their upper back or even shoulders are grey. The western lowland silverbacks really have 'grey pants' to call it (where eastern gorilla silverbacks have only a grey band across their back). He can be recognized by grey hairs on his back and legs and his size. To start: in every family group in zoos there's only one adult, who is the leader. In zoos their tasks are slightly different partly because of the space they have, partly because of the fact that they - whether or not on certain fixed times - get food from their care takers. In the wild he decides what the group does. The silverback in a family group is the leader.

Gorilla penis lenght