What kind of temperament do gorillas have?

What kind of temperament do gorillas have?

Daniel Simmonds (Zookeeper) gives expert video advice on: Do the gorillas trust you?; Do you trust the gorillas?; How can you tell gorillas apart? and more...

The general temperament of a gorilla is actually very, very relaxed, verging on quite lazy. Some compare the gorillas to the average human couch potato. If you give them the option to do very little, then they will do very little. So the gorillas actually need a lot of encouragement to be active in their temperament. For example in the wild, the main reason that gorillas will move around is to look for food. If they were to come across a large amount of food in one place, then they probably wouldn't move from that large pile of feed for a number of days. So it's important for us here at London Zoo to ensure that we spread the food around and put it up high to encourage them to move around. Just to keep the gorillas fit and healthy in their temperant and it's just also a part of the general enrichment for an average day.