May 19, 2022
Fun Fact: Mountain gorillas live a near-constant state of flatulence because of their diet.
Eating 20 kg a day of salad could do that to anyone. A 2020 BBC documentary using animatronic cameras recorded a family of gorillas munching on leaves, twigs, and fruit. In addition to the intestinal orchestra, they also captured the gorillas singing for their supper. In an associated study published in PLOS ONE, older male gorillas were reported to be the most likely to sing and everyone was more likely to sing for salad (aquatic vegetation, flowers, and seeds) than for bugs.
You and me both.
If you’re interested in further reading, see their 2016 paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144197
For a video of the “chorus”, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ta7Uwd2koA