If gorillas are herbivores, why do they have canine teeth?

I%26#039;m asking this because I%26#039;m contemplating changing my eating habits to raw foods. When getting enough protein is in question, many of the articles I have read mention something about gorillas being one of the strongest animals in the world and they live on raw foods, no meat. Then I%26#039;ve read other articles that claim because humans have canine teeth, we were meant to eat meat since canines are supposedly for shredding meat. So how could this be so if gorillas don%26#039;t eat meat yet they too have canines?

If gorillas are herbivores, why do they have canine teeth?
The point at which something becomes unimportant for an animal is *not* necessarily the point at which it starts to get selected out of genes. At some point in the development of gorillas they would have to have one instance of the animal have that random mutation that makes those teeth either go away completely or to get smaller. My gut tells me that the smaller the change (e.g. in this case making the teeth not grow so large as opposed to eliminating them altogether) is more likely to occur - then too, a small change in the opposite direction (larger teeth) is just as likely. So you have to have that adaptation and THEN it has to confer some advantage over the old design so that after a number of generations the old design is just not longer being produced. So why do they have canines? because some ancestor had them and the gorilla has never written them out of it%26#039;s DNA. That writing out is not an act of volition and, as you see, not necessarily optimal.





PS My, your, our forebears also ate insects. Canines offer no particular advantage to tearing the abdomen off an insect, you can do it with your fingers.
Reply:Because canines have other uses apart from eating meat, like crunching stems, so there was no advantage in losing them.
Reply:Actually, gorillas ore omnivores, just like we are. They eat meat and vegetables.
Reply:Gorillas are omnivores like humans or bears.
Reply:gorillas are actually omnivores. they eat both meat and plants. sometimes they also use their canine teeth for self defense.
Reply:a lot of plant food can be actually quite tough, the canines can be used to shred tough fruits and nuts or twigs. They are mainly used in social interactions in threat displays (males have larger canines than the females do). Gorillas are mainly vegetarian, while they will eat bugs I haven%26#039;t heard of them eating meat (in contrast to chimpanzees), but I haven%26#039;t really researched it. But I am sure if they do eat meat, it will be rare.





If you switch to raw foods make sure you know which ones are good to eat raw. While cooking can have disadvantages it can make food more digestible and I think in some bean it destroys toxins. I think this link is pretty exhaustive about pros and cons.



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