How to denote a female gorilla

Question

gorila is a masculine noun. I know that most nouns for living things ending in -o have the -a form for the feminine. This one throws me off though because it is a masculine noun ending in -a denoting a living thing. So, if gorila is gender neutral, do we need we specify the gender of the animal we are talking about with an adjective, like "el gorila hembra" or "el gorila macho"?

Answer 1

I don't think you have to go that far. If you're talking about a female gorilla just say "la gorila", or for a male "el gorila". Some dictionaries will tell you that "gorila" is a noun without a gender. That means the article in front of it will identify if it's male or female.

Some nouns that refer to persons do have a gender. If you're talking about a woman who is a member of a group, she's still "un miembro", and it doesn't matter if the person is a man, he's still "una persona".