where do Gorilla and Chimpanzee Stay

Where are the Gorilla and Chimpanzee Habitats Found?


Gorillas are found in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the green, volcanic mountains. There are two subspecies of gorillas known the eastern gorilla mountain and the Grauer’s gorilla. Eastern gorillas live in the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, northwest Rwanda, and southwest Uganda while the Grauer’s gorilla are endemic to the forests of the Albertine Rift in eastern DRC.
The world’s remaining mountain gorillas live in three countries spanning four national parks—Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Volcanoes National Park, and Virunga National Park.


  
Gorillas live in a variety of habitats and elevations, gorilla habitat range from montane forests to swamps. Mountain gorillas live in the montane forests at the higher ends of the elevation range, while eastern lowland gorillas live in submontane forests at the lower ends of the elevation range. In addition, eastern lowland gorillas live in montane bamboo forests, as well as lowland forests ranging from 600 to 3,308 meters’ in elevation.

Western gorillas live in both lowland swamp forests and montane forests, and elevations ranging from sea level to 1,600 meters and Cross River gorillas live in low-lying and submontane forests ranging from 150 to 1,600 meters

Nesting

Gorilla night nest constructed in a tree

Gorillas construct nests for daytime and night use. Nests tend to be simple aggregations of branches and leaves about 2 to 5 ft  in diameter and they are constructed by individual gorillas. Gorillas, unlike chimpanzees or orangutans, tend to sleep in nests on the ground.

The young nest with their mothers, but construct their own nests after three years of age, initially close to those of their mothers. Gorilla nests are distributed arbitrarily and use of tree species for site and construction appears to be opportunistic.

Chimpanzee Habitats 

Chimpanzees can be found in Southern Senegal across the forested belt north of the Congo River to Western Uganda and Western Tanzania. Gombe National Park in Tanzania is the first park in Africa specifically created for chimpanzees.

The broad band of rainforest across equatorial Africa, from the continent’s west coast to the western frontiers of the East African countries of Tanzania and Uganda contains almost all of the world’s chimpanzee habitat. However, some of the grasslands just east of the vast rain forest also provide chimpanzee habitat, but only when they contain islands of trees or are close to the forest edge.



Habitat for the bonobo, the chimpanzee’s close relative, is much more restricted, with the only populations found in the rain forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Chimpanzee build their habitat near food resources such as fruits, nuts and nutritious seeds as well as such edible insects as termites.

Nest-building

Nest-building is sometimes considered to be a form of tool use as seen when chimpanzees construct arboreal night nests by lacing together branches from one or more trees to build a safe, comfortable place to sleep, infants learn this process by watching their mothers.