Can I keep a gorilla as a pet?
It depends on where you live, in the US, there are states where it is legal to have a gorilla as a pet, often a license and special permit is required.However, I think this is more of a case of “just because you can, it doesn't mean you should” kind of question. Gorillas are huge, weighing over 400 pounds, gorillas are roughly 6 times as strong as a strong human and they live to be some 60 years.Gorillas need very careful handling , a silverback gorilla has the strength to break a humans back with a single swipe of its arm. Silverback leaders, when threatened are know to fight to the death.A gorilla’s bite has been recorded to reach the strength of 1300 pounds per square inch, stronger than a lion bite (650 PSI) and stronger than a great white shark bite (625 PSI).When a gorilla escapes from a zoo, standard procedure is to call for a SWAT team armed with tranquilizer darts - (A zookeeper in Buffalo, N.Y., who was bitten by a gorilla last spring)Gorillas are wild animals, not domesticated in the slightest - you are better off getting a dog of some kind - perhaps a large one like a Great Dane or Neapolitan Mastiff
Can Gorillas be house pets?
I saw a documentary on people who had tigers and lions as house pets and I was wondering if Gorillas could be domesticated like those big cats. ...and no the documentary was not fake it was on 20/20 and it showed a man who had about 7 tigers as pets
Can silverback gorilla be kept as pet?
No. Primates are aggressive and unpredictable, regardless of whom they are raised by...did you not hear about Travis the Chimp ripping someone's face off? You can raise a gorilla as a human, but sooner or later it will realise it's gorilla strength. Gorillas are generally more docile than chimps but they are capable of causing serious damage, even killing someone, especially "silverbacks" which are males. More and more states are banning even tiny marmosets as pets and so they should! They are wild animals. There's the first reason. The second reason is, how would you like it if someone stole your child from you on the day of their birth? This practise of ripping primates from their families and raising them with humans to make cute "pets" is abhorrent and disgusting. Do you have any idea what sort of long term irreperable damage and pain this does to both mother and baby? The third reason is, gorillas are seriously endangered. If they are in captivity it needs to be in zoological institutions with the intention of captive breeding and raising numbers. A gorilla shouldn't be kept as a pet while it's so endangered, that is utterly selfish. The fourth reason is that lots of people are actually debating whether higher primates like gorillas should be given more rights than other animals. They are deeply intelligent, and social. They are very closely related to us and keeping them as pets isn't much better than keeping a human slave. If you think a "big backyard and trees" is enough to make up for the complex social interactions, feeding and mating habits and general lifestyle that a wild gorilla lives, you are seriously mistaken. Even zoos have huge problems recreating suitable habitats for these animals, how could your regular human do it?
Why don’t people keep gorilla as pet?
It is a bad idea in so many ways, that's why. They are a more threatened species than tigers ( btw, they are illegal here, I’m not sure where you are seeing them) and so international transport would be very difficult if not impossible.They are also subject to many diseases we are subject too, so maintaining their health would be horribly difficult. They can spread diseases to us, as well, many of which we can’t treat ( simian herpes, Marburg and Ebola viruses, for example).It also borders on slavery or other unlawful imprisonment, depending on what kind of conditions are designed by the *pet* owner.Zoos can help preserve or bring back populations, and they are expensive , dangerous and problematic; an individual doing it just makes it all worse.
Does Koko the gorilla have a soul?
There is MUCH in your question that is implied. Koko does not have self awareness. It does not have a soul, it was not created after the image of God, only man. The animal is only mimicking language and can not construct even the simplest sentence (subject verb object) but can only relate to cause and effect by hitting certain objects constructed in object form. It's understanding is being anthropomorphised to say the least. I.E. it is sad of course, this can be understood. But WHY it is sad is a whole separate issue. It knows that the cat is not moving, and is not responding in relationship to it, but it doesn't understand nor can it understand the implications of death or the reason of it. It is NOT self aware. It doesn't ponder reasons of existence nor does it ponder the purpose of it's existence.
Would 5 humans beat 1 gorilla?
The thing that makes gorillas so formidable isn’t their raw strength, it is the fact that they are built like tanks.There is just no vulnerable part of a gorilla’s body. Their necks are completely surrounded by muscle and bone. Their skull is incredibly thick. A gorilla’s chest and midsection are massive, protecting the liver and abdomen. You can take down a large man with very little force if you apply it to the right part of the body. No such luck on a gorilla.Gorillas are some of the pound-for-pound strongest animals alive. A silverback can weigh as much as 350 pounds. The males often fight to the death for the right to mate with females, so selective breeding has made them elite fighters and grapplers. They also have one of the strongest bites in all of the animal kingdom, and really big teeth.If you pit five naked humans against a gorilla under general anesthetic I think they have a tough time killing it. Awake, a gorilla can quite literally pull you apart.