Gorillas make travel decisions as a group

Gorillas make travel decisions together Keystone-SDA

Gorillas coordinate their travel movements together. This was shown by observations of western gorillas in the Central African Republic, in which the University of Neuchâtel was also involved.

The report published in journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological SciencesExternal link shows that high-ranking individuals in the group determine the direction of travel. However, the timing of the journey is decided through consensus by all adult group members. The individual members signal their travel intentions by grunting.

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For the study, three western gorilla ((Gorilla gorilla) groups accustomed to humans were examined. The pronounced sexual dimorphism in gorillas, i.e. the differences between the two sexes, had previously indicated that the silverback males had sole decision-making power.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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