Birthdays are a time for fun! Celebrating a trip around the sun with friends and family has become an integral part of our society, but as it turns out — human beings aren't the only animals that know how to party.
Recently, the animals and staff at Brookfield Zoo in Illinois all got together in order to celebrate Nora the Gorilla's ninth birthday. This beautiful celebration of life serves as a stark reminder of just how necessary continued conservation efforts for lowland gorillas truly are.
Nora is the offspring of Koola and JoJo — two of the resident gorillas currently housed at Brookfield. Nora spends the bulk of her days climbing, goofing around with her half-sister, Kamba, as well as lounging in her treetop encampment at the zoo. Recently, she celebrated her ninth birthday surrounded by her family and friends, as well as a collection of friendly zookeepers and animal handlers.
The diet of a lowland gorilla is mainly herbivorous. This means that they much prefer to feast on a variety of leaves, stems, bark, as well as the occasional flower. Although they are mainly herbivores, every once in a while a hungry lowland gorilla enjoys nothing more than to stuff its face with all the termite and ant larvae it can find.
Lowland gorillas are found in parts of Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea — as well as in large areas in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. The exact numbers regarding the population of lowland gorillas remain a mystery, as they tend to inhabit some of the densest areas of the African jungle. Today, they are considered to be a "critically endangered" species.
According to the World Wildlife Foundation, population numbers of lowland gorillas have declined roughly 60% over the past 20 to 25 years. Hypothetically speaking, if all the threats currently faced by lowland gorillas were to cease immediately, scientists estimate that it would still take roughly 75 years for the species to recover.
If you want to help Nora and other lowland gorillas like her, you can learn more about adopting a gorilla here.
