How mountain gorillas break the social moldIn the wild, gorillas form small, loose social groups. Mountain gorillas, a rare subspecies of the eastern gorilla, buck this trend. Size isn’t everything in gorilla societyBased on traditional theories of power and dominance among gorillas, males should consistently outrank females. Mountain gorillas get valuable sodium from decaying wood, and individuals take turns to eat, beginning with the alpha. Every time a female gorilla outranked a male gorilla, she ate before him.