![]() ![]() Compared to a female, a silverback gorilla has a larger head, body and can weigh up to 270 kilograms. A silverback is much larger than a female. A male gorilla that is too old to be a juvenile but too young to be a silverback is referred to as a blackback. Silverback gorillas are distinguished by a grayish white hairline around the back and shoulders. Silverback doesn’t refer to a particular species of gorillas but a mature male gorilla. Gorillas live in groups or families led by a Silverback. Silverback Gorilla – Size, height and lifespan ![]() Human diseases, habitat destruction and poaching for meat are the greatest threat to wild gorilla survival. This is because their numbers have reduced considerably in the last century. All subspecies of gorillas are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In what has become known as The Great Clearances, the crofters were evicted, often by force, and forced to seek asylum in Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.There are currently over 300,000 Western lowland gorillas, 5000 Eastern lowland gorillas, 1,000 mountain gorillas and less than 400 Cross river gorillas. This system worked ok when times were good and the crofters could afford their rent, but throw in the occasional famine and the lairds began to think that it was more profitable to have sheep rather than those pesky crofters on their lands. Scotland, at this time, was a country of hereditary land owners (lairds) and subsistence farmers (crofters), who rented their modest holdings from the lairds. The vanquished Highlanders, by contrast went into an extended period of poverty and cultural repression. The Prince stayed well clear of the front lines, escaped and went on to live as a degenerate exile on the European continent. Although the prevailing image is of kilt-clad Highlanders brandishing swords and shouting Braveheart-worthy war screams, the truth is that the battle lasted barely an hour and was an utter rout for the Scots. Bonnie Prince Charlie, a wannabe King, had rallied the Highland forces into what proved to be a suicidal attack against the disciplined English forces. Scotland lost its quest for independence at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. (Don’t ask me how I can’t figure it out either.) Three or so generations of this and you’re back to the ubiquitous mutts that are universal from Puerto Rico to New Delhi. Put a male and a female in the same room when the female is in heat, and they will find a way to copulate. Great Danes and Chihuahuas are the same species. How many wars have been fought for race, nationality, or religion? How many lives have been lost, over nothing really. Other notable granfalloons are political boundaries and organized religion. We’re all mutts, making race, and its artificial distinctions one of the world greatest granfalloons, the proud, but meaningless, association of humans as defined by Kurt Vonnegut in his mind-altering novel Cat’s Cradle. ![]() Everyone has had their way with the Sicilians. (Similarly, my wife, Sandy, proudly claims Sicilian heritage, and her National Geographic test backs her up, but her father was Hungarian, and the Sicilians are a minestrone of Moors, Greeks, Normans, Phoenicians, and Arabs. Kurt Vonnegut popularized the notion of a “granfalloon” ![]()
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