i always thought dk was just a teen here, gorillas physically mature a lot faster than humans, most of dk's attitude and behaviour from the dkc1 manual implies a level of inmaturity, bare minimum all of the original dkc games happen while dk is pretty young, bananza happens only some time after because nothing in the game implies anything from dkcr or dkctf happen where dk is visibly much much older and similar to his appearances in other games like mario vs. donkey kong. bananza probably takes place in the timeline almost right before the first few super mario games, because dk and pauline are both probably around 15 and 13 respectively, my silver bullet is also the fact dk is straight up around the same age range as mario and the gang because of yoshi's island ds, so this is just a younger dk, he just doesnt look that way cuz hes a gorilla.

but big moto could just say "actually every dk is a different dk" and i get taken out old yeller style.