The Scientific Classification of Mountain Gorillas
Every species on Earth carries a scientific name — a two or three-part Latin designation that provides precise, universally agreed identification regardless of what language you speak or where you are in the world. For mountain gorillas, that name is Gorilla beringei beringei. Understanding the origin and structure of this name reveals the history of how western science came to recognise these animals, and places them correctly within the taxonomy of the great apes.
Binomial Nomenclature: How Scientific Naming Works
The system of scientific naming used worldwide today was developed by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century. Under this system, every species is identified by two names: the genus name (capitalised) and the species epithet (lowercase). Mountain gorillas belong to the genus Gorilla, the species beringei, and the subspecies beringei — making the full trinomial name Gorilla beringei beringei.
The repeated epithet indicates that mountain gorillas are the nominate subspecies of the eastern gorilla — the subspecies that was described first and gave its name to the species. The eastern lowland gorilla (Grauer’s gorilla) shares the species name beringei but has a different subspecies designation: Gorilla beringei graueri, honouring Rudolf Grauer, the naturalist who collected specimens in the early 20th century.
Who Was Beringe? The Origin of the Name
The species name beringei honours Captain Friedrich Robert von Beringe, a German army officer who led an expedition to the Virunga volcanoes in 1902. Von Beringe and his party became the first Western scientists to shoot and collect mountain gorilla specimens, bringing two skulls and partial skeletons back to Berlin for formal scientific description.
The collection was controversial even at the time — Von Beringe reportedly shot several gorillas during the expedition. But by the scientific standards of the era, physical specimens were required for formal species description, and the specimens Von Beringe collected allowed the German primatologist Paul Matschie to formally describe the species in 1903. Matschie named it Gorilla beringei in Von Beringe’s honour, following the taxonomic convention of that period.
The 1902 date of Von Beringe’s expedition marks the formal entry of the mountain gorilla into Western scientific literature, though of course the animals had been known to local communities in the Virunga region for generations. The Batwa people of the forest had coexisted with gorillas for centuries before any European set eyes on them.
Taxonomy History: Two Species or One?
For most of the 20th century, all gorillas were classified as a single species: Gorilla gorilla. Subspecies were recognised — western lowland, eastern lowland, mountain — but the overarching single-species designation reflected the relatively limited genetic analysis available at the time.
In 2001, based on comprehensive molecular and morphological analysis, the taxonomy was revised to recognise two distinct gorilla species: the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla) and the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei). This revision had significant conservation implications, because two species cannot interbreed in ways that a single species with subspecies can, reinforcing the case for treating each population as independently endangered.
The 2001 revision placed mountain gorillas firmly within the eastern gorilla species, sharing Gorilla beringei with eastern lowland gorillas. Within the eastern species, mountain gorillas retain their subspecific designation as beringei beringei.
Common Names vs Scientific Names
Mountain gorillas are known by different common names across different languages. In English, the name is most commonly used. In French (spoken in Rwanda and DRC), gorille de montagne. In Kiswahili, sokwe wa mlima. In Kinyarwanda, ingagi. In Luganda, gorilla w’ensozi.
The scientific name Gorilla beringei beringei is used consistently across all these language contexts, providing the clarity of a single universally recognised designation. In conservation documents, research papers, and legal instruments protecting the species, the scientific name appears alongside common names to eliminate ambiguity.
Related Species: The Great Ape Family Tree
Mountain gorillas belong to the family Hominidae — the great apes — alongside chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus), orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and Pongo abelii), and humans (Homo sapiens). All great apes share a common ancestor and are distinguished from lesser apes (gibbons) by their larger size, lack of a tail, and greater cognitive complexity.
Within the great apes, gorillas are most closely related to humans and chimpanzees. The evolutionary divergence between gorillas and the chimp-human lineage occurred approximately 10 to 12 million years ago. Chimpanzees and humans diverged from their common ancestor approximately 6 to 7 million years ago. This places gorillas as the third-closest living relatives of humans after chimpanzees and bonobos.
IUCN Classification
Under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, Gorilla beringei beringei is classified as Endangered, a status updated from Critically Endangered in 2018 following documented population recovery. The current population of approximately 1,063 individuals represents all known surviving mountain gorillas. The IUCN assessment notes that while the population trend is positive, the species remains highly vulnerable to disease, habitat loss, and political instability in the Virunga region.
Final Thoughts
The scientific name Gorilla beringei beringei carries within it the history of European discovery, the evolution of gorilla taxonomy, and the formal recognition of a distinct species worthy of its own conservation status. Understanding this name contextualises the animal you encounter in Bwindi within a scientific and historical framework that stretches from 1902 to today — and forward into a conservation future that the name now helps protect.
