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50 free Gorilla trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This gorilla trivia quiz covers the biology first: how big a silverback really gets, why gorillas have fingerprints, how the two species and their subspecies are split by the Congo River, what mountain gorillas eat, how the nine-step chest-beating display works, and why gorillas build a brand-new nest every single night. Then it moves to gorillas and people: Hanno the Navigator's hairy 'Gorillae', Paul Du Chaillu, Carl Akeley, George Schaller and Dian Fossey, Koko and her kitten, Colo the first captive-born gorilla, Snowflake the albino, Harambe, King Kong and Donkey Kong. Conservation questions cover Ebola, bushmeat and the remarkable recovery of the mountain gorilla to just over 1,000 animals. Every question was checked against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia articles on gorillas and the individual animals and researchers named) and carries a citation. It works as a classroom quiz, a pub round or a warm-up before our chimpanzee and orangutan quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the leader of a gorilla troop called?
A silverback
The name comes from the saddle of silver hair that grows on a male's back once he matures, usually after age 12.
Q 02What are the two recognised species of gorilla?
Eastern and western
Each species has two subspecies, and a possible third, the Bwindi population, has been proposed for the eastern species.
Q 03Which two animals are more closely related to humans than gorillas are?
Bonobos and chimpanzees
Even so, about 15% of the human genome turns out to be closer to the gorilla than to the chimpanzee.
Q 04Gorillas hold which distinction among the primates?
The largest alive today
Big males stand up to 1.8 m and weigh up to 227 kg, with arm spans reaching 2.6 m.
Q 05How long do gorillas typically live in the wild?
35 to 40 years
Zoo gorillas occasionally pass 50; Fatou, the oldest known, was still alive past 69.
Q 06The word 'gorilla' traces back to the account of which ancient Carthaginian explorer?
Hanno
His expedition down the West African coast met hairy 'savage people' its interpreters called Gorillae; nobody knows if they were apes or humans.
Q 07Skins of Hanno's 'gorillai' were reputedly kept in Carthage until which event?
Rome destroyed the city in 146 BC
That was the end of the Punic Wars, some 350 years after Hanno's voyage.
Q 08Under what name did Andrew Battel describe a gorilla-like creature in 1625?
Pongo
He wrote that ten men could not hold one and that it walked with its hands clasped behind its neck.
Q 09Who scientifically described the western gorilla in 1847, from specimens obtained in Liberia?
Thomas Savage and Jeffries Wyman
They named it Troglodytes gorilla, borrowing the chimpanzee genus name of the day.
Q 10Human gene sequences differ from their gorilla equivalents by roughly what percentage on average?
1.6%
The bigger differences lie in how many copies of each gene the two species carry.
Q 11Roughly how long ago did gorillas diverge from the common ancestor they share with humans and chimps?
About 7 million years
All three are grouped in the subfamily Homininae.
Q 12Which geographical feature separates the ranges of the two gorilla species?
The Congo River
The western gorilla lives in west central Africa and the eastern in east central Africa, with the river system between them.
Q 13How much do wild male gorillas typically weigh?
136 to 227 kg
Females are roughly half that; captive males can balloon to 310 kg.
Q 21How often do gorillas build a new sleeping nest?
Every day
Even if the troop stays put, yesterday's nest is abandoned; unlike chimps and orangutans, gorillas usually nest on the ground.
Q 22Roughly how many hours a day do gorillas sleep?
12
Nests are usually built about an hour before dusk so they are ready when night falls.
Q 23Which animal is the only likely natural predator of adult gorillas?
The leopard
Gorilla remains turn up in leopard scat, though that could be scavenging; a silverback will die defending his troop.
Which other apes have been observed forming coalitions to attack gorilla families and kill infants?
Q 14The heaviest wild gorilla on record, shot in Ambam, Cameroon, weighed how much?
267 kg
The tallest wild one, at 1.95 m, was shot in northern Kivu in 1938; captive Gust of Antwerp Zoo reached 2.20 m.
Q 15Which feature do gorillas share with humans that can identify individuals?
Fingerprints
Their blood, however, does not fit the human ABO system at all, unlike the other great apes.
Q 16A 2018 study of Bwindi mountain gorillas found they knuckle-walked only what share of the time?
60%
They also walked on fists, the backs of their hands and their palms, a range of postures once thought unique to orangutans.
Q 17Fatou, the oldest known gorilla, celebrated which birthday in 2026?
69
The oldest male ever, Ozoum, reached 61; wild gorillas rarely pass 40.
Q 18What makes up the bulk of a mountain gorilla's diet?
Leaves, stems, pith and shoots
Fruit is only about 1.7% of what they eat; a Bwindi male gets through some 18.8 kg of vegetation a day.
Q 19Which gorilla subspecies depends most on fruit and travels furthest each day?
Western lowland
They average about 1,105 m a day and also eat termites and ants.
Q 20Why do gorillas rarely drink water?
Their food is nearly half moisture
Morning dew on the plants adds to it, though both mountain and lowland gorillas have been seen drinking.
Chimpanzees
The two species mostly ignore or avoid each other and have even been seen forming social bonds.
Q 25Younger subordinate males aged 8 to 12 in a gorilla troop are known as what?
Blackbacks
They lack the silver saddle and may act as backup protection for the troop.
Q 26How long is a gorilla's gestation?
8.5 months
Female mountain gorillas first give birth around age 10 and then roughly every four years.
Q 27How many distinct gorilla vocalisations are recognised?
25
Deep rumbling belches signal contentment and are the most common sound within a troop.
Q 28How many steps make up the gorilla's ritualised charge display?
Nine
It runs from quickening hoots and symbolic feeding through chest-beating with cupped hands to thumping the ground with the palms.
Q 29How do gorillas beat their chests?
With cupped hands
Bigger gorillas produce lower-frequency beats, so the sound advertises size; males beat most when females are ready to mate.
Q 30In 2005, a wild female gorilla in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park used a stick to do what?
Gauge the depth of water in a swamp
It was the first documented wild gorilla tool use, meaning every great ape species has been seen using tools.