Primates are the closest, known relatives to humans. Nevertheless, a gorilla’s strength is unmatched compared to a man/woman. Most people will inaccurately guess how strong a gorilla is, either severely […]
Primates are the closest, known relatives to humans. Nevertheless, a gorilla’s strength is unmatched compared to a man/woman.
Most people will inaccurately guess how strong a gorilla is, either severely underestimating or vastly overestimating. Here, you will discover the true strength of one of the world’s strongest animals.
In the Guinness Book of World Records, a gorilla’s strength was measured. How the strength was measured is unknown to me, since I could not find any web pages confirming the method used.
Gorillas are sexually dimorphic, which means the females and males have two distinct bodies (they are not the same). In the case of gorillas, males are significantly larger than females. A larger body means more muscle mass (generally), thus more strength.
Therefore, when discussing a gorilla’s strength, we will be referring to males (an average male gorilla weight approximately 400 pounds). But to better put a gorilla’s strength into context, let us compare it to that of a male human.
Livestrong.com states the average adult male can lift 155 pounds. The gorilla whose strength was measured was able to lift 1,800 pounds! Which, is roughly 11.6 times the weight an average male can lift.
But to give credit to us humans, the current world record raw deadlift (without a lifting suit or straps) is 1,015 pounds. An incredible feat, indeed!
There are two species and four subspecies (2 subspecies of each species) of gorilla. Contrary to popular belief, a “silverback gorilla” is not a species. The term silverback is used to describe the gray/white hair male gorillas get around 13 years of age.