Chocolate Tube Slime vs Gorille de l'Ouest

Stemonitis splendens compared with Gorilla gorilla

Key Differences

Chocolate Tube Slime is Not Evaluated while Gorille de l'Ouest is Critically Endangered.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Chocolate Tube Slime	Gorille de l'Ouest
Kingdom	Protozoa (protozoaire)	Animalia (animal)
Phylum	Mycetozoa	Chordata (Chordates)
Class	Myxomycetes (Myxomycetes)	Mammalia (mammifères)
Order	Stemonitidales	Primates (Primates)
Family	Stemonitidaceae	Hominidae (Great Apes)
Genus	Stemonitis	Gorilla (Gorillas)
Species	Stemonitis splendens	Gorilla gorilla

Conservation Status

Chocolate Tube Slime

NE — Not Evaluated

Gorille de l'Ouest

CR — Critically Endangered

Population: ~100.0K

Trend: Decreasing ↓

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Chocolate Tube Slime	Gorille de l'Ouest
Diet	—	Herbivore
Average Lifespan	—	40 years
Average Length	—	1.7 m
Average Weight	—	160.0 kg

Habitat & Geographic Range

Chocolate Tube Slime

Habitat

Native to Asia and Europe and North America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Widely distributed across Asia (Taiwan), Europe (5 countries), North America (United States), and South America (Brazil).

Gorille de l'Ouest

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, and flooded grasslands and savannas, among 4 distinct biome types within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Distributed across Cameroon, Congo (Republic), Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. Currently classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Chocolate Tube Slime

The Chocolate Tube Slime Mold (Stemonitis splendens) is a species of myxomycete (plasmodial slime mold) in the family Stemonitidaceae, found worldwide in temperate and tropical regions wherever there is decaying wood, leaf litter, and moist conditions. Stemonitis species are characterised by their elegant, upright, tube-shaped sporangia arranged in dense clusters — the sporangia of S. splendens are typically 10–20 millimetres tall, chocolate-brown to rust-brown in colour, and supported on individual stalks (stipes) arising from a common base. The spore mass within each tube is supported by a fine internal network of threads called the capillitium. Despite resembling plants or fungi, slime molds are protists — during their vegetative phase they exist as a large, multinucleate, mobile plasmodium that engulfs bacteria and fungal spores as it moves through decaying organic material. The plasmodium aggregates and differentiates into fruiting bodies when conditions become unfavourable, releasing millions of wind-dispersed spores. Chocolate Tube Slime Mold is not evaluated by the IUCN; as a cosmopolitan protist, it does not meet criteria for conservation listings. It is a common and iconic subject for amateur naturalists and is frequently photographed on decomposing logs in temperate woodland. Its ecological role in decomposing wood and recycling nutrients is significant.

Gorille de l'Ouest

The world's largest primate, western gorillas weigh up to 180 kg and inhabit the tropical and subtropical forests of equatorial Africa. Primarily herbivorous, living in family groups led by a silverback male who protects the troop and mediates social conflicts. Critically Endangered, with populations threatened by deforestation, poaching for bushmeat, and outbreaks of Ebola virus disease.