Gorillas, the largest living primates, inhabit the tropical and subtropical forests of equatorial Africa. The history of their discovery by the Western world spans over two millennia, moving from vague, ancient reports to formal scientific classification and detailed field study. This timeline shows how a creature of legend became a subject of scientific understanding and global conservation efforts.
Early Historical Accounts and Legends
The earliest known Western reference dates back to 500 BC when the Carthaginian navigator Hanno led an expedition along the coast of West Africa. His account, the Periplus, describes encountering “savage people, the greater part of whom were women, whose bodies were hairy” and whom his interpreters called “Gorillae.”
Hanno’s crew reportedly captured and killed three individuals, bringing their skins back to Carthage. Scholars debate whether these “Gorillae” were truly the great apes, another primate species, or an indigenous human tribe. Regardless, the name was preserved and later adopted for the genus. Further vague reports emerged from European traders and explorers in the 16th and 17th centuries, though these descriptions often conflated gorillas with chimpanzees or were heavily exaggerated.
The Formal Scientific Recognition in the 19th Century
The transition from legend to scientific fact occurred in the mid-19th century, driven by physical specimens rather than sightings. The formal classification of the gorilla is credited to American physician and missionary Dr. Thomas Staughton Savage. Working in Liberia, Savage acquired a skull and other bones of a large, unknown ape species.
In 1847, Savage collaborated with the naturalist Jeffries Wyman to publish a detailed description of these remains. They assigned the new species the scientific name Troglodytes gorilla, placing it within the same genus as the chimpanzee. The species name gorilla was chosen to reference Hanno’s ancient account. This publication marked the first time the gorilla was formally cataloged and recognized as a distinct species by Western science, even though the description was based entirely on skeletal anatomy.
The Shift to Fieldwork and Live Observation
Following the formal classification, the next stage involved observing the animals in their natural habitat to understand their behavior. French-American explorer Paul Du Chaillu became the first modern European to confirm the existence of gorillas in the wild. Traveling through West Equatorial Africa between 1856 and 1859, Du Chaillu hunted and collected numerous specimens, including skins and skeletons.
His vivid, though often sensationalized, accounts of encounters were published in 1861. Du Chaillu’s work provided the first visual and behavioral context for the creature that Savage had only known through bones. Although some of his dramatic claims were initially met with skepticism, his efforts solidified the gorilla’s place in zoology and brought it into the public consciousness.
Refining Classification: Subspecies and Modern Knowledge
The understanding of gorillas continued to evolve, revealing a greater biological diversity than initially assumed. Scientists eventually separated the genus into two distinct species: the Western Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the Eastern Gorilla (Gorilla beringei). Each of these species is further divided into two subspecies, resulting in four recognized types.
The Western species includes the Western Lowland Gorilla, which is the most numerous, and the Cross River Gorilla. The Eastern species includes the Eastern Lowland Gorilla and the Mountain Gorilla. The distinction of these subspecies directly informs current conservation strategies, which focus on monitoring these distinct populations and implementing targeted efforts to prevent their extinction in the wild.