Are you wondering what a baby gorilla is called? Baby gorillas are called infants, just like baby humans, which makes sense when we’re so closely related.

Gorilla babies are smaller than human infants when they are born. Female gorillas have a gestation period of about 8.5 months. Infant gorillas are born weighing about 1.4 kg (3 pounds) – 1.8 kg (4 pounds) when they’re born. That is half the weight of the average human infant!

However, gorillas grow faster and reach maturity at around 12 years of age. Gorillas end up weighing more than the average human by the time they are adults. This is between 136-219 kg/300-483 pounds for males and about 90-113 kg/198-249 pounds for females.

Baby gorillas usually stay in physical contact with their mother for 5 to 6 months. Mothers will usually be in close physical contact with their babies for around half a year after they are born.

This helps to keep the infant gorilla safe, lets mother keep track of the baby during active moments like foraging or travelling, and provides comfort for the infant. Gorilla infants start to manipulate objects and explore their surrounding at about 3 months of age.

They will be walking and exploring within a few meters from their mother at around 8 months. As they grow and become strong, they will move further in most cases with support from siblings and other juveniles or blackbacks.

Mothers are the primary caregivers, but the infant’s siblings and other juveniles sometimes try to help out. Infants and their moms remain in close proximity to each other and share a very close relationship for the infant’s first few years.

However, as the baby gorilla matures and starts venturing away from its mother, juveniles will participate in the young gorilla’s life. They do this through activities such as infant carrying and playing.

Mountain gorilla babies don’t know who their dad is. Researchers are typically able to determine paternity through observations and genetic analysis. There are a couple of reasons for this, for example; mountain gorilla groups can have more than one silverbacks which may have bred with the mother, or an infant’s mother may have transferred from a different group.

Research shows that baby gorillas do not show a preference for spending time with their biological fathers versus other silverbacks, further supporting the idea that the infant does not know who their real father is.

But silverback gorillas assist in infant care. Adult male mountain gorillas don’t know which infant is theirs, but they spend time caring for and socializing with older infants.

A study has also shown that blackback mountain gorilla males who spend more time playing with baby gorillas and juveniles are more likely to sire offspring once they become silverbacks.

To see these infant baby Gorillas, Gorilla trekking in Uganda is done in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park & Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, gorilla trekking in Rwanda is done in Volcanoes National Park or Gorilla trekking in Congo in is done in Virunga National Park and Kahuzi Biega National Park.