168 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Coast Gorilla. Gorille (Fr.). Gorilla (Ger.) 



GORILLA GORILLA GORILLA (Savage and Wyman) 



Troglodytes'] gorilla Savage and Wyman, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 2, 

 p. 245, 1847. ("Empongwe, near the river Gaboon, Africa"; about lat. 

 20' N., long. 9 30' E.) 



FIGS.: Gervais, Hist. Nat. Mammiferes, pt. 1, pis. facing pp. 26, 28, 1854; 

 Du Chaillu, 1861, frontisp.; Forbes, 1894, vol. 2, pi. 28; Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 London 1896, p. 505, fig.; Elliot, 1913, vol. 3, frontisp.; Cunningham, 

 1921, pp. 119-124, figs.; Barns, 1923, figs. 45, 46, 50, 51; Yerkes and Yerkes, 

 1929, numerous figs.; Coolidge, 1936, pi. 12; Raven, 1936a, p. 316, fig.; 

 Fauna [Philadelphia], vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 8-9, figs., 1939. 



The Coast Gorilla is generally considered to be diminishing in 

 numbers but not to be in danger of extermination. All gorillas are 

 given full protection under Schedule A of the London Convention 

 of 1933. 



"This animal ... is much larger and more ferocious than the 

 Chimpanzee. Its height is above five feet; but it is remarkable for 

 the disproportionate breadth of the shoulders, which is double that 

 of the Chimpanzee. The hair is coarse, and black, except in old 

 individuals, when it becomes gray. The head is longer than that of 

 an ordinary man by two inches, and is remarkable for having a crest 

 of coarse hair over the sagittal suture, which meets at right angles 

 a second, extending over the upper part of the occiput, from one 

 ear to the other. The fore-arm is much shorter than the arm, the 

 hand is remarkable for its great size, and the thumbs larger than 

 the fingers." (Savage and Wyman, 1847, pp. 245-246.) 



"Face and chest bare, black; . . . arms and belly black; back 

 and outside of thighs gray grading into black towards ankles and 

 on feet; hands black; no beard; top of head black, nape mixed 

 black and red." Height, 5 feet 10 inches. (Elliot, 1913, vol. 3, 

 pp. 213-214.) 



The numerous described forms of Gorillas are reduced by Cool- 

 idge (1929, p. 348) to two subspecies the present one and the 

 Mountain Gorilla (G. g. beringei). 



"For the Coast Gorilla, the westernmost boundary approximates 

 the Cross River in the southern provinces of Nigeria. The most 

 westerly point actually recorded is Ikom, 8 40' east and 6 north. 

 The northernmost point is close to Basho, 9 25' east, 6 7' north. 

 On the east we have reports from several places such as Wesso and 

 Nola on the Sanaga [error for Sanga] River. The Sanaga River, 

 about 16 15', seems to mark the eastern boundary of the range 

 of the Coast Gorilla. On the southeast the line follows the border 

 of the forest which reaches its southernmost limit at Mayombe on 

 the edge of the Belgian Congo, 5 south, 13' [ = 13] east. Along 

 the Atlantic coast in most places the forest begins a little way inland. 



