No one who looks into a gorilla's eyes - intelligent, gentle, vulnerable - can remain unchanged, for the gap between ape and human vanishes; we know that the gorilla still lives within us. George Schaller (1)
So why should we care about endangered gorillas?
First of all, we should care about these animals because of ethical considerations. They have the right to exist like every other living organism on Earth.
But we also should care about them because there is still so much that we don’t know about the world around us. Our interactions and studies of gorillas can certainly help us learn more both about the nature in general and about ourselves in particular.
As we look back into the history of human evolution in an attempt to understand the mystery of our origin and presence on this planet, the current well-being of non-human apes (including gorillas) has undoubtedly captured everyone’s imagination.
Ceding only to the chimpanzee, gorillas are humans’ second closest relatives sharing at least 97% - 98% of their DNA with us. (3)
If you don’t know a lot about gorillas, you will be amazed at just how intelligent and fascinating these animals are.
Indeed, gorillas have had plenty of negative encounters with their human counterparts.
There are some reports about gorillas who were orphaned after their parents had been killed for bushmeat. As babies these gorillas witnessed their parents’ extremely painful deaths, and were then sold as pets to someone else.
It’s a well known fact that wild animals do not make good pets.
So once baby gorillas grow up in their “adopted” families, they become unmanageable and are subsequently abandoned (or even killed) by their owners. That is how they become orphaned, if they are not killed. (15)
Another example, perhaps one of the most outrageous treatments of gorillas by humans ever, was a recently uncovered suspected attempt by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to create so-called “invincible” soldiers by cross-breeding humans and gorillas (“apemen”). (16) These claims have yet to be substantiated though."
All animals have a role in the ecosystem. And not having an animal that has a role in the ecosystem. They eat leaves, bark, shoots, stems, roots, flowers, insects and fruit. They also spread seeds so trees can grow. Since they are very territorial, they can also help protected their plants. What if they were gone? The bark, shoots, stems roots, flowers, and fruit will over grow, and there would be to much oxygen and less carbon dioxide. The insects they eat will overpopulate and soon have a part messing up a healthy ecosystem. The seeds won't spread and less and less trees will grow, which other living things need. Then soon, the other animals and plants in below the food chain will die. Because of that, carnivores will die too. The future will miss out of the gorillas, and wouldn't see or learn that much about them. The world NEEDS GORILLAS!
1. though they are not as genetically close to us as chimps, they are still very closely related. So they are needed for us to understand our own behaviors, DNA, etc.
2. They keep the bottom of the rain forest healthy by eating vegetation. If the vegetation grows too thick, the floor of the rain forest could become over crowded with sick plants.
3. By eating the vegetation, they are a key factor in keeping the entire ecosystem healthy. Everything from plants, insects, and animals would be significantly impaired if gorilla's were to disappear, and the vegetation was over grown and less healthy.
IF any animal goes extinct it throws off a specific ecosystem possibly letting the prey or plant that the animal ate grow to very large numbers population wise or killing off great numbers of the predators which hunted the species in order to stay alive.
I am doing a project for school about endangered gorillas and can't find much online. So 3 reasons Why should gorillas be saved and no dumb answers like because they're cool or anything like that. 10 point best answer
