Like any other wild animals, gorillas are very shy and would stay away or avoid humans entirely if possible in the wild. However, if an intruder comes too close to the gorilla’s family, the leader silverback gorillas could react aggressively but only to drive them away. In general, gorillas never attack humans unless humans provoke them intentionally.
There are instances in history where gorillas attacked humans in conflicts due to their territory breaching, however, not to hunt humans for food.
In general, the gorilla will see you as harmless and would stay calm unless threatened with direct eye contact & rumors.
Here is a recent instance where gorilla named Harambe in Cincinnati Zoo caught the national attention. A three-year-old fell into the gorilla enclosure, and Harambe dragged the boy through the water to a safe place to protect the boy against the shouting mob.
Based on the past violent behavior of gorillas, the zookeeper shot Harambe rather than tranquilizing him to save the child.
This situation sparked a lot of controversies as some believe that the zookeeper shouldn’t have killed Harambe while others think that the zookeeper made the right decision.
Do Gorillas Eat Soil? Believe it or not, occasionally, gorillas consume mud, soil, or even ash (near volcanos) to regulate their digestion system and absorb any minerals missing in plants. Also, dirt helps them to neutralize the poisonous substances from plants they feed on. This process of eating soil or clay or ash is known as geophagy .
Does Gorilla Eat Other Gorillas? The short answer is perhaps . In the recent PLOS journal 2010, there was a recording of finding other monkey and antelope meat in western lowland Gorillas’ fecal samples. Cannibalism is quite common in Chimpanzees than gorillas. Adult chimpanzees can snatch the infant chimpanzees from their mothers and eat their fleshes.
However, there was no documented evidence of eating other adult chimpanzees.
Gorilla Diet By Sub-Species The genus ‘Gorilla’ includes two species, western gorilla and eastern gorilla. Each of these species contains two sub-species.
Western gorilla has western lowland gorilla and cross-river gorilla sub-species. Eastern gorilla has eastern lowland gorilla and mountain gorilla sub-species. The diet of each sub-species is very identical, as they all live in the same African continent.
Diet of Eastern Lowland Gorilla (G. beringei)
Kingdom Order Family Genus Species Animalia Primates Hominidae Gorilla G. beringei
As gorillas generally have opposable thumbs, it makes life easier for eastern lowland gorillas to peel fruits and bamboo shoots. The eastern lowland gorillas are also known as Grauer’s gorillas. Eastern lowland gorillas are primarily herbivorous but sometimes eat animals, so they are classified as omnivores. Being omnivorous, they tend to travel long distances for their food. Majority of the eastern lowland gorilla diet includes green leaves, nuts, and wild berries from about 100 species of plants daily. Occasionally, eastern lowland gorilla eats small animals such as insects, lizards, rats, and other rodent families.
Diet of Western Lowland Gorilla (G. gorilla)
Kingdom Order Family Genus Species Animalia Primates Hominidae Gorilla G. gorilla
Western lowland gorillas are mainly herbivorous too. Fruits are the primary and essential food source of western lowland gorillas’ diet. According to Panda.org studies, over 100 fruit species are recorded in western lowland gorillas’ diets. When the fruits are not in the season, such as in drier months, western lowland gorillas enrich their diet with green leaves, pith, shoots, and tree barks. They also eat caterpillars, termites, and weaver ants to compensate for the food scarcity.
Diet of Mountain Gorilla (G. beringei)
Kingdom Order Family Genus Species Animalia Primates Hominidae Gorilla G. beringei
As mountain gorillas in the thick forests of central and west Africa, they also eat roots, bamboo shoots, fruits such as berries, wild celery, tree barks, pulp, and occasionally insects and termites.
Cross River Gorilla (G. gorilla)
Kingdom Order Family Genus Species Animalia Primates Hominidae Gorilla G. gorilla
According to CrossRiverGorillas.org, Cross River Gorillas consume more liana (A Liana is a long tender stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and climbs up to the canopy) and tree barks around the year. Cross-river gorillas eat less fruit during periods of scarcity than Western Lowland Gorillas. When food is scarce, cross-river gorillas travel long distances to other sides of the forests in search of food. These primates sometimes get into human crops 
[…] fully grown mountain gorilla partakes of more than 140 types of plants, shoots, stems and leaves, and can eat up to sixty pounds of […]