How Much Space Does a Gorilla Group Need?

Gorillas do not occupy discrete territories and do not defend these areas against conspecifics. Instead, they roam in so-called home ranges. Where food sources are widely dispersed, the home ranges are larger. If especially nutritious and high quality food plants are abundant, the distance between feeding sites becomes shorter. The more members a group has, the further the group has to roam and the bigger is the home range. The home ranges comprise several vegetation zones which are seasonally exploited. They cover areas of between 4 and 8 km², but in less fertile areas they can extend to over 30 km². Usually, the home ranges of several groups overlap; sometimes the range of one group is even completely inside the area of another.
Gorilla groups move an average of 0.5-1 km a day to forage, depending on food availability. However, they can move over great distances to visit trees with particularly favoured food.

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