Updated
The mountain gorilla’s scientific name is Gorilla beringei beringei. Gorilla is the genus; beringei is the species, the eastern gorilla; and the repeated beringei marks the mountain gorilla as the subspecies first described. The name honours Captain Friedrich Robert von Beringe, a German officer who shot two gorillas on Mount Sabinyo in the Virunga volcanoes in 1902, from which the zoologist Paul Matschie described the animal in 1903. Here is how the name fits into gorilla classification.
Two species, four subspecies
Gorillas are divided into two species. The western gorilla, Gorilla gorilla, includes the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and the Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli). The eastern gorilla, Gorilla beringei, includes the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) and Grauer’s or eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), named after the Austrian explorer Rudolf Grauer. The two species separated roughly a million or more years ago. See our guides to eastern lowland vs mountain gorillas and the Cross River gorilla.
How the name came about
Western gorillas were described to science in 1847 from skulls sent from Gabon, and the genus name Gorilla was adopted soon after, from a Greek account of a “tribe of hairy women” reported on an ancient voyage along the West African coast. In October 1902, von Beringe’s expedition killed two large apes high on Sabinyo, and their remains reached Berlin, where Matschie recognised them as a new kind of gorilla and named it Gorilla beringei. Later work treated it as a subspecies of the eastern gorilla.
Are Bwindi’s gorillas different?
Bwindi’s gorillas and those of the Virunga volcanoes are classified as the same subspecies, but they have been separated for a long time by farmland and differ slightly in body shape, diet and behaviour; Bwindi gorillas eat more fruit and climb more. Some researchers have suggested they could be treated as distinct, but current classification keeps them together as mountain gorillas. See our guide to mountain gorilla habitat.
Why it matters
Classification affects conservation. The IUCN Red List assesses each subspecies separately: the mountain gorilla is Endangered, after being moved up from Critically Endangered in 2018, while Grauer’s and Cross River gorillas remain Critically Endangered. Distinct names help focus funding and protection on populations that need it most. To see Gorilla beringei beringei in the wild, Uganda’s permit costs US$800, or US$600 in April, May and November. See our guide to mountain gorilla numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Gorilla beringei beringei.
Captain Friedrich Robert von Beringe, who collected the first specimens in 1902.
Two, the western and eastern gorilla, each with two subspecies.
Yes, they are classified as mountain gorillas, though slightly different from Virunga gorillas.
