Coco yam vs gorilla

Colocasia esculenta compared with Gorilla gorilla

Key Differences

• Coco yam is Not Evaluated while gorilla is Critically Endangered.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Coco yam	gorilla
Kingdom same	Animalia (动物界)	Animalia (动物界)
Phylum	Arthropoda (节肢动物门)	Chordata (脊索动物门)
Class	Insecta (昆蟲綱)	Mammalia (哺乳動物)
Order	Lepidoptera (鱗翅目)	Primates (灵长目)
Family	Noctuidae	Hominidae (Great Apes)
Genus	Colocasia	Gorilla (Gorillas)
Species	Colocasia esculenta	Gorilla gorilla

Evolutionary Relationship

Coco yam and gorilla share a common ancestor at the Kingdom level: Animalia. (动物界)

Conservation Status

Coco yam

NE — Not Evaluated

gorilla

CR — Critically Endangered

Population: ~100.0K

Trend: Decreasing ↓

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Coco yam	gorilla
Diet	—	Herbivore
Average Lifespan	—	40 years
Average Length	—	1.7 m
Average Weight	—	160.0 kg

Habitat & Geographic Range

Coco yam

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).

gorilla

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.

Coco yam

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.

gorilla

西部大猩猩是世界上最大的灵长类动物，体重可达180千克，栖息于赤道非洲的热带和亚热带森林。主要为草食性，以保护族群并调解社会冲突的银背雄性为首形成家族群体。由于森林砍伐、丛林肉偷猎和埃博拉病毒疾病暴发，被列为极度濒危（CR）。

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇨🇲 Cameroon 🇨🇬 Congo (Republic)