What is "eastern lowland gorilla"

n. a kind of gorilla [syn: Gorilla gorilla grauri]

Grauer's gorilla, formerly known as the eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) is a subspecies of eastern gorilla endemic to the mountainous forests of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Important populations of this gorilla live in the Kahuzi-Biega and Maiko National Parks and their adjacent forests, the Tayna Gorilla Reserve, the Usala forest and on the Itombwe Massif.

It is the largest of the four gorilla subspecies. It has jet black coats like the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), although the hair is shorter on the head and body. The male's coat, like that of other gorillas, turns silver at the back as the animal matures. There are many more western lowland gorillas than the eastern variety; compared to over 100,000 western lowland gorillas, there were only about 5,000 eastern lowland gorillas in the wild in a 2004 report and fewer than 3,800 in a 2016 one. Outside the native range, only two females were in captivity at the Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, per a 1987 book. 1