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Why do silverback gorillas have silver backs?
Pete Hodgson
Male gorillas develop a saddle-shaped area of silvery hair on their backs when they reach sexual maturity. Silverback gorillas’ silvery fur is for display, and communicates to other gorillas that they’re adult males. Many other species have equivalent markers performing this function – for example, facial hair in male humans or manes in male lions. A typical gorilla family consists of a dominant silverback male, sometimes other silverbacks that support the dominant male, younger blackback males, adult females, juveniles and infants. The dominant silverback plays an important role in keeping the group together, as well as protecting it.
Did you know?
Silverbacks live for about 35 to 40 years
WHY DO ATOMS HAVE ELECTRONS?
Roy Munneke
Electrons are one of the fundamental particles in atoms. They neutralise the charge of an atom, their negative charge balancing out the positively charged protons – that’s why there’s always an equal number of electrons and protons in an atom. Electrons are also responsible for atom bonding. Atoms always want a full outer shell of electrons, and to this end they gain, lose or share electrons with other atoms, often forming new materials in the process. As electrons are the part involved in bonding, the configuration of electrons in an atom is what gives
