colocasie vs Gorille de l'Ouest

Colocasia esculenta compared with Gorilla gorilla

Key Differences

  • colocasie is Not Evaluated while Gorille de l'Ouest is Critically Endangered.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank colocasie Gorille de l'Ouest
Kingdom same Animalia (animal) Animalia (animal)
Phylum Arthropoda (arthropodes) Chordata (Chordates)
Class Insecta (insecte) Mammalia (mammifères)
Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies & Moths) Primates (Primates)
Family Noctuidae Hominidae (Great Apes)
Genus Colocasia Gorilla (Gorillas)
Species Colocasia esculenta Gorilla gorilla

Evolutionary Relationship

colocasie and Gorille de l'Ouest share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (animal)

Conservation Status

colocasie

NE — Not Evaluated

Gorille de l'Ouest

CR — Critically Endangered

Population: ~100.0K

Trend: Decreasing ↓

Physical Characteristics

Attribute colocasie Gorille de l'Ouest
Diet Herbivore
Average Lifespan 40 years
Average Length 1.7 m
Average Weight 160.0 kg

Habitat & Geographic Range

colocasie

Habitat

Inhabits flooded grasslands and savannas within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (30 countries), Asia (6 countries), Europe (9 countries), North America (8 countries), Oceania and the Pacific (8 countries), and South America (6 countries).

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.

colocasie

Coco Yam (Colocasia esculenta), also widely known as Taro, is a pantropical herbaceous plant in the family Araceae, cultivated as a food crop for more than 10,000 years and considered one of humanity's oldest cultivated plants. The species grows from large starchy corms and produces broad, sagittate leaves with distinctive water-repellent surfaces—an adaptation that has earned the plant its association with the lotus effect in traditional culture. Corms, cormels, and young leaves are all edible after thorough cooking, which is essential to neutralise the calcium oxalate crystals that cause intense irritation when raw. Originating in South and Southeast Asia, Colocasia esculenta has been dispersed across tropical Africa, the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and the Americas through centuries of agricultural exchange and migration. It thrives in wet or waterlogged soils, being particularly associated with paddy cultivation, irrigation channels, and swampy ground, though drought-tolerant cultivars exist. The species is a dietary staple in Hawaii, where it is the basis of poi; in West Africa, where it is boiled or pounded; and across the Pacific Islands, where it sustains subsistence communities. Given its widespread cultivation and genetic diversity represented across thousands of landraces, IUCN has not formally evaluated its conservation status. The species is not considered at risk.

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.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

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