The Hirwa Gorilla Twins at 7 Months 

Shannon Fields pranathatv

During the nursing period of the first 1-2 years, yes these babies fully rely on their mother. But once the babies start eating solid food, it has been observed that in the tragic case of the mom dying, the dominant silverback (their dad) will actually take care of them (transport the baby on its back, let the baby sleep with him in the nest, teach the baby how to forage, play with him... basically everything except nursing), so once the babies can sustain themselves with solid food (which is actually quite early because the greens and vegies they eat in the rainforrest are quite a lot nutritious and more easily digestable compared to what other herbivores eat like grass and leafs), they actually have a good survival rate. The main reason gorilas die is poaching in 95% of cases (still even in 2021, although it has been greatly reduced thanks to 24/7 surveilance), the second cause of death is a new silverback becoming the new group leader and killing all the babies so that he can mate with the mothers sooner, and after all that are regular death from old age, sickness or injury. If poaching wasnt a thing, there would be tens of thousands of mountain gorillas, but because some people mainly from east Asia believe that some gorilla parts increase libido and sexual performance, or it is just cool to have gorilla furr, or gorilla teeth, or even skinned stuff with gorilla skin, and pay A LOT of money for it, poachers will keep poaching sadly...