![]() Males who remain in their birth group are subordinate to the dominant silverback, who has exclusive mating privileges with a troop’s females. He gets to mate with the soon-to-be ovulating bereaved mother. Because infanticide shortens interbirth intervals, killing a female’s infant is a strategic act on the part of the silverback, who is intent on passing on his genes. Some silverbacks are known to kill the babies of female newcomers. (In groups with multiple male members, the deceased silverback’s son is likely to assume the role as leader.)Įmigrating females may try out several groups before settling into one where they feel comfortable and protected by the group’s silverback leader. Without the silverback’s protection, a mother’s infants may be vulnerable to infanticide by outsider males. In groups with a lone silverback male, females are inclined to leave their birth group following the silverback’s death. Their exit is a deliberate act to avoid inbreeding. A large mountain gorilla troop can exceed 20 individuals.įemales, more frequently than males, leave their birth groups when they become reproductively mature. Subordinate silverbacks might also be part of a troop they are most often the younger brothers or adult sons of the dominant silverback. Three to four sexually mature females, one or two younger male gorillas, and three to six juveniles and infants form this cohesive family. Mountain gorillas are highly social animals who live in family groups, referred to as troops, led and protected by a dominant silverback. In studying mountain gorillas’ dental health, scientists have noted that while mountain gorillas rarely get teeth cavities (likely because fruits, which contain a lot of natural sugar, are not their primary food source), these great apes are prone to bad tartar, which can lead to periodontitis, ultimately causing the loss of teeth-and worse, deterioration of the gorillas’ jaw bones. Gorillas get their daily water requirement through the plants they eat. ![]() During the rainy season, Virunga gorillas frequent bamboo forests, where they are able to find young shoots to snack on. Weather is another influencer upon mountain gorillas’ diet. For example, the diversity of fruit trees is greater in the lower altitude range of Bwindi gorillas, so these gorillas eat more fruit than the Virunga population. ![]() Elevation varies the type of vegetation that the two subspecies eat. Adult males consume up to 75 lb (34 kg) a day adult females consume up to 40 lb (18 kg) a day. Less than 1 percent of its diet comes from insects. Mountain gorillas eat a mostly vegetarian diet that consists of leaves, stems, bark, shoots, roots, flowers, and fruit. (Population numbers reported by Reuters news, taken from a census conducted in 2018.) These great apes are one of two subspecies of the eastern gorilla, the other being Grauer’s gorilla, formerly known as the eastern lowland gorilla. With a home range consisting of several tropical vegetation zones, which include montane and bamboo forests, the aptly named mountain gorilla dwells at altitudes ranging from 7,200 to 14,100 ft (2,200–4,300 m) in Virunga and 4,921–7,550 ft (1,500–2,300 m) in Bwindi. Habitat destruction and fragmentation has confined both populations of mountain gorillas to isolated patches of forest. The remainder of this population (400 individuals) lives 15 mi (24 km) north in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which encompasses southern Uganda and adjoining areas of the Congo. More than half the population of our world’s mountain gorillas (604 individuals) resides high in the lush, dense cloud forests of the Virunga Mountains, a dormant volcanic range in central Africa that spans the borders of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |