Gorillas are among the most intelligent and powerful primates, sharing a close genetic relationship with humans. Their advanced intellect and dexterity naturally lead to questions about their learned behavior. The common image of an ape happily peeling a banana is a deeply ingrained cultural idea that sparks curiosity about how these animals truly interact with the fruit.
The Direct Answer: Peeling Behavior in Captive and Wild Gorillas
The simple answer is that gorillas possess the physical and mental capacity to peel a banana, but whether they actually do is highly dependent on their environment. In the wild, gorillas rarely encounter the domesticated, thick-skinned, and high-sugar bananas found in grocery stores. The bananas they might come across are usually wild varieties or cultivated ones growing near human settlements, which they may raid.
When they consume a ripe banana, they frequently eat the entire fruit, including the peel. The peel of a ripe banana is thin, soft, and digestible, making removal unnecessary. For a massive animal that spends a significant portion of its day foraging, consuming the entire item is an efficient means of maximizing caloric intake.
In contrast, captive gorillas are often observed peeling the fruit, a behavior that is often learned or encouraged through human interaction and feeding practices. Some captive individuals separate the peel from the fruit, eat the flesh, and then return to eat the discarded peel afterwards. This consumption of the peel is likely due to its fiber and nutrient content, which is a valuable addition to their diet, especially when the fruit is slightly raw.
The Natural Diet of Gorillas and Fruit Consumption
The popular image of a gorilla constantly eating bananas is largely inaccurate, as the fruit is not a staple of their natural diet. Gorillas are primarily herbivores, classified as folivores, meaning their diet is overwhelmingly composed of tough, fibrous vegetation. Their daily intake includes a massive amount of leaves, stems, bark, and plant pith, which provides the necessary bulk and fiber.
An adult gorilla can consume up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of vegetation in a single day, spending up to 70% of its waking hours foraging to sustain its large body mass on this low-caloric density food. This dietary requirement explains why their behavior is centered on consuming large volumes of foliage rather than focusing on small, high-sugar items.
The fruits they do consume in the wild are seasonal and significantly lower in sugar content than cultivated bananas. For example, wild mountain gorillas primarily eat leaves and shoots, while western lowland gorillas consume more wild fruits when available. When near banana plants, the gorilla may even prefer to eat the fibrous stems and leaves of the plant itself over the fruit.
Gorilla Cognition and Fine Motor Skills
The ability to peel a banana is a testament to the gorilla’s underlying dexterity and cognitive capacity, even if they do not frequently utilize this skill. Gorillas possess opposable thumbs, a characteristic they share with humans and other great apes, which allows for grasping and manipulating objects. While their hand structure is primarily adapted for a powerful grip used in climbing and knuckle-walking, they are also capable of a refined precision grip.
This precision grip involves the use of the thumb and index finger, an action that is necessary for delicate food processing tasks like peeling or separating parts of a plant. Studies have shown that gorillas frequently employ this thumb-index grasp when handling food items. Their cognitive abilities, including advanced spatial and temporal reasoning, support their capacity for complex manipulation.
Their problem-solving skills are demonstrated by documented instances of tool use in both captive and wild settings. For example, wild gorillas have been observed using branches as walking sticks to test water depth before crossing. This intelligence and fine motor control mean that if the gorilla decides the banana peel is too thick or undesirable, they are fully equipped to remove it.