The Amazon Rainforest is home to an astonishing array of wildlife, including many species of primates. Despite the region’s reputation for housing diverse and large animals, the answer to whether gorillas inhabit the Amazon is definitively no. Their entire native range is thousands of miles away on a different continent. This common misconception stems from conflating the world’s two largest rainforest systems.
Gorillas: An Exclusively African Species
Gorillas are classified as Great Apes, belonging to the Hominidae family, and are endemic only to the tropical and subtropical forests of Central Africa. The genus Gorilla is divided into two distinct species: the Western Gorilla and the Eastern Gorilla, each with two recognized subspecies. Western Gorillas are found across the Congo Basin in countries such as Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo. The Eastern Gorilla species includes the Grauer’s Gorilla and the famous Mountain Gorilla, which inhabit the mountainous forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. These massive, primarily herbivorous primates have evolved exclusively within the African continent.
The Biogeographical Divide
The absence of gorillas in the Amazon is a matter of deep biogeography and evolutionary history, tracing back tens of millions of years. Primates are broadly split into Old World Monkeys and Apes (including gorillas) and New World Monkeys. An ancient split occurred about 40 million years ago, and the ancestors of the New World primates arrived in South America from Africa roughly 36 to 40 million years ago. This journey was likely accomplished by floating across the narrower Atlantic Ocean on rafts of vegetation. Since that initial arrival, the two primate groups have evolved independently on separate continents, meaning the Great Apes never had the opportunity to colonize the Amazon.
The Largest Primates of South America
While the Amazon lacks gorillas, it is home to substantial primates that fill the niche of large arboreal mammals. The largest primates in the Amazon Basin are the Howler Monkeys, known for their powerful, resonating vocalizations produced by an enlarged hyoid bone that can be heard for miles. Spider Monkeys and Woolly Monkeys are also among the largest species, characterized as New World Monkeys with long, slender limbs and prehensile tails used like a fifth limb for grasping and swinging. This prehensile tail is a defining anatomical feature of many New World monkeys, distinguishing them from the Old World Apes like gorillas, who lack tails entirely.