Things to know about gorillas before going on a trek.

Gorilla habituation

Things to know about gorillas before going on a trek, Gorilla habitation is the practice of domesticating mountain gorillas by adapting their initial wild habits, in order to create a favorable connection or relationship with humans. To qualify for a gorilla group to be visited by visitors, the family must first undergo the habitation exercise. The process of fully habituating a gorilla family to human beings often requires a duration of 2 – 3 years, enabling unfettered interaction between humans and gorillas.The initial gorilla family to undergo habituation in Bwindi is known as the Mubare gorilla family. The family was first observed in 1991, and the process of habituation began shortly thereafter. By 1993, the family was prepared for visitors to observe them. Despite several changes in leadership over the years, the Mubare gorilla family has continued to exist up to the present day.

Habituating a gorilla family is a challenging endeavor that necessitates a dedicated team of motivated rangers who are willing to exert their utmost efforts. The process may even entail the habitation team camping deep within the forest for several days and nights.

The habituation exercise is conducted in sequential phases.

First phase

Identifying the family’s identity and its number of members. Comprehending the magnitude of a gorilla group is crucial as it allows you to determine the appropriate number of personnel to deploy. Additionally, understanding the family size helps mitigate risks. For instance, families with a small number of members, specifically less than 5, are more likely to divide and gradually vanish. In most cases, families with more than 15 members are heterosexual and often take a long time to become accustomed to human beings. These types of families also tend to exhibit high levels of aggression, making it challenging to establish a habituated relationship with them.

Second phase

The process of habituation begins on day one. Upon obtaining knowledge of the family size, the habituation team will promptly commence tracking the family. During the initial six months of the exercise, there is a strong probability that the team will not encounter any gorillas, despite their continuous pursuit. This is because animals experience a profound fear of human beings, causing them to instinctively flee as a means of avoiding human contact.

Third phase

During this phase, there is a significant increase in the level of interaction between humans and gorillas, however it tends to be more violent in nature. This is because the animals now perceive a threat.

Gorilla communication (gorilla talk)

Mountain gorillas have a variety of communication methods, including vocalizations, roars, and gestures. Similar to the act of chest beating and stomping on the ground. They utilize a diverse range of tones to effectively communicate and organize their everyday family activities. Each tone possesses its own distinct meaning or information that it conveys. These meanings can include signals to move, rest, feed, or indicate a threat.

Additionally, loud screams are often emitted during sexual or mating encounters. Gorillas within a family engage in many forms of communication, including mother-to-mother, silverback-to-mother, infant-to-infant, and mother-to-infants. Mountain gorillas demonstrate self-respect, which is shown in their diverse methods of communication with one another.Occasionally, the silverback gorilla may have an inclination to consume a plant that another gorilla had previously been feeding on. When the silverback approaches, there is a form of communication, resulting in the food or plant being relinquished to the silverback.

A similar dynamic occurs among the females, as they adhere to their hierarchical structure within the family. During their movements, gorillas emit different vocalizations to communicate and guide each other. Additionally, when resting during the day, gorillas tend to stay together, with infants and young gorillas engaging in playful interactions. This emphasizes the significance of communication among gorillas. Mountain gorillas utilize a combination of high and low tone communications within their family group, depending on the specific activity or incident taking place. Intense and elevated forms of communication occur during conflicts over food or when there is a perceived threat to the family.

These situations can arise when a new individual joins the family, when a solitary male is present, or when a solitary individual is in close proximity to the family. The dominant male, known as the silverback, will emit intimidating sounds, perform loud chest beats, and ultimately gather all family members around him to ensure their safety. Every communication inside the family conveys significant information to its members. This can include messages about the deliciousness of food, provocation, playfulness, or fear. Infants seem to prefer emitting loud screams and roars while engaged in play. Mountain gorillas utilize low tone communications when the mother and infants engage in grooming while resting during the day. These messages consist of approximately 20 distinct tones, each carrying its own specific meaning. Visual communication can be used to convey messages to either an individual or a complete family.

Feeding Behavior of the Gorillas

The mountain gorillas are 99% vegetarians as they don’t eat on meat with the exception of occasional consumption of ants and termites that they obtain through dead wood and the females eating the placenta after giving birth. This is one way the supplement on their diet.

They basically select food rich with proteins and carbohydrates and relatively low in fiber, they majorly feed on leaves, plant buck, shrubs, stems and fruits, gorillas spend about six hours a day feeding as they consume huge amounts of food in a day. Most of the plants eaten by the gorillas contain some volume of water about 80% and this explains why these animals don’t commonly drink water and also it is the same reason as to why they have got big bellies. Silverback is estimated to eat about 25kgs of vegetation a day while females eat about 15-18 kgs a day.

Gorillas sometimes drink water when they come across water, they drink water in various ways i.e. Deeping their arms in water and leaking the water from their fur, scooping off the water using their hands, deeping in the mouth into wet. the infants at the age of 1 year basically rely on breast milk from their mothers and at the age of 1 year plus the infants start learning how to pick their own food though they will have to keep close to their mothers and as they get old and older they keep on breaking the contact period with their mothers and continue looking for food for themselves.

Gorillas always prefer feeding when they are scattered so as to avoid food competition amongst themselves and they have got an aspect of respect amongst themselves in a way that if the female is feeding on a certain tree species that the silverback wants, the female will have to move away leaving that particular plant for the silverback to feed on.

During a fruiting season the silverback may not be in position to climb some trees because if fear of falling down so he will opt to keep down ,the females and the immature individuals in the group will keep on throwing down fruits for the silverback to feed on . Gorillas are capable of climbing up in trees looking for what to eat they can climb as high as 30 meters up in the tree.

while feeding these animals observe high volume of respect from each other in most cases when the dominant male wants to feed on a particular plant species and already some is feeding in that plant , in most cases one has to leave the food for the dominant male to feed on without complaining and also during a fruiting period the silverback may not be in position to climb the tree but those who can will keep on throwing down the fruits for the silverback and he will keep on picking them and feast on them .some plants they feed on the backs and some on their inner parts whereby they gave to peel off the outer part so as to feed on the inner one like briantesia.

These animals eat a lot on a daily basis i.e. the silverback is estimated to be feeding about 18-25 kgs of food per day, while females about 12-18 kgs a day so as to reach that quantity of food on a daily basis they have to keep actively feeding for about 6 hours of their day. Their feeding involves picking the food with their hands and peeling off with their teeth and chewing. Majorly while feeding they sit on the ground and keep picking and pulling the vegetation and incase the vegetation is a bit high one call stand on its feet and pull the vegetation down. 

The Social Behavior Of the Gorillas

Mountain gorillas are very social animals which live in a family with all the members coordinating their daily activities amongst each other cohesively with due respect and care for one another. Mountain gorillas generally like themselves in the family despite the fact that there will be some wrangles which may happen basically over the fight over Dominance of the family majorly by the males  and also through food competition while feeding, this why they prefer feeding scattered  so as to avoid wrangles amongst themselves , mountain gorillas always gather together in one area to groom each other the grooming can either be mother to the infant , silverback to the adult female , juvenile to the fellow juvenile . When a new individual is absorbed into the family majorly if the new individual is a female , the silverback tends to be so close to that individual as a sign of giving comfort to the new family member whereas other individuals majorly the adult females will keep scaring off the new member.

Gorillas socially coordinate their activities together ranging from movement, feeding and resting. While feeding the subordinates in the family always tend to leave some food for the superiors either the alpha male or the alpha female as a sign of respect to the superiors in the family.

When a solitary male absorbs females to make up a family, the silverback tends to scare and beat the absorbed females as a way of showing of his strength so as to gain Respect from those females, such a behavior always exists in the first week since the females may be trying to oppose the silverback and eventually try to look for how to get back to their natal family. In a multi male family the subordinates males always prefer to stay aside from the family so as to avoid wrangles with the alpha male but they can help the alpha male to protect the family in case of an attack so socially they defend the family together.

Mountain gorillas always nest together in the same place close to each other and the adult females with the unweaned babies will keep Sharing nests with their infants as a infant will  not be in position to make a nest but during the day infants at the age of 2- 3.5 years tend to exercise how to make nests , while moving females always cry their unweaned infants so as to ensure that  none of their infants is left behind  and in case there is an infant the mother died other adult females with weaned or without babies can help to take care of the that infant or not any the silverback himself will take care of  that infant in the family .

Interestingly when an infant dies in the family , the mother will keep Carrying the dead body of her infant until when the body gets rotten and the body parts start falling off one by one until when the mother is left with nothing of any her dead infant body parts and incase it’s a grown up individual of the family either the juvenile , adult female, black back ,or the silverback , the rest of the family will keep feeding around that area and nesting around that area for a couple of days as a way of showing pity over the loss of the family member .incase it’s any illness in the family by any family member  or even an individual has sustained some injuries this can be a silverback , the injuries can be through a fight or falling down from a tree . Mountain gorillas always prefer to feed around one area as a way of avoiding prolonged movements that may worsen the situation of the sick member in the family. 

While feeding majorly during the fruiting period not all the gorillas can be in position to climb the tree majorly the silverback because of his heavy weight , some individuals will climb up in the tree and keep dropping fruits down for other individuals which have kept down because of unable to climb the tree , this is one way if showing their care for the family members ,the fruits majorly are chrysophyllum, marianthius fruits then after the rest of the family will come down for a small rest during the day as they keep picking the remaining fruits that they have been dropping down for other family members . 

While resting the infants and the juveniles spent much of their time playing amongst themselves this may be through grabbing, mounting, swinging in trees, running after each other and wrestling .This is one way that they make their body muscles strong , the mountain gorillas also during resting help to nurse their wounds amongst themselves majorly wounds that they cannot nurse on their own.  

Socially the alpha male takes the lead of the family and at times assisted by the subordinate male or the alpha females , in case the alpha male is wounded the subordinate male or alpha female steps in the leadership of the family , recently Mishaya silver (Tinfayo) sustained some injuries which kept him away from the family for about a period of two months , it was interesting to witness how an alpha female ( kyara ) took over the control of the family until when the alpha silverback got well and rejoined the family , even when this females could encounter other families with silverbacks the alpha female could be always try to divert their route so as  to dodge the other family until when the silverback rejoined the family .

Interesting is that by the time the alpha male rejoined, all the adult females were still intact in the family under the leadership of the alpha female. In case of an encounter with unusually object with the family, for example a dead bird, the entire family may gather together to try to find out what is the object exactly. This explains the high rate of curiosity amongst the mountain gorillas. 

In case the silverback grabbed some individuals from another family and the new individual has an infant, it is always a common behavior amongst them to kill the infants but sometimes the females may come together and try to protect the infant this can be through keeping close to the infant and making a lot of noise while running towards the silverback whenever he tries to come close to that infant. 

Lifespan of gorillas

Mountain gorillas life span is not certain because this animals rarely die in their natal groups because whenever one gets old and older in the group therefore implies that one will not be in position to move together with the rest of the group but instead may decides to leave a solitary life and thus makes it not clear to know the exact age at which this animals die because one may leave the natal group due to age and still joins another group which it can coordinate with, .in most cases females live more longer that males and the females are estimated to be able to survive until the age of in between 35 and 45 whereas males are estimated to survive for a period of about 35 years of age.

The reason as to why the females live longer than the males is that they are always associated with a lot of challenges throughout their life time for example males play a big role in the group defense and in the due course the register some injuries which result in to their eventually death at an earlier age and also these males are very heavy compared to the females so this makes it hard for them to climb trees and in most cases they climb trees and end up breaking hence causing accidents whereas females remain safe from accident. 

There are more mortality rates registered when they are still infants in the age of 0- 3 years these animals tend to be more vulnerable at the infantry age and easily die, their death is majorly due group interaction where the natal group is being absorbed by another silverback it is always a common phenomenon that these animals after absorbing aground they tend to kill the young ones who are not their offsprings, his is a common dominance behavior amongst these animals.

Then also the infants die due to failure of the mother to take care or the mother lacks breast milk so the baby will starve and eventually die because at the age of 9 month these babies basically depends on their mothers breast milk as they can not feed on their own , sometimes the infants die when their mothers die this majorly happens to those who are still depending on their mothers breast milk but those at the age of 2.5- 4 years they may survive because at that age they can feed by themselves and also other females can take over or the dominant male himself will take care of the infant by caring, carrying and also Making the nests for the infant.

When an infant dies the mother will keep moving with the dead body of her infant until when the body gets rotten and the body parts start falling off until when she finally remains with nothing and on the other hand if it is the adult female or adult male and also other immature individuals die the entire group will keep around the area where the dead body is for some time this is a sign of them feeling sorry and showing togetherness amongst themselves , this always takes a period of 3-5 days of mourning their dear ones.

These animals when they death ages closer majorly those who die due to old age, they tend to appear to weak and could always keep lying almost all the time and can’t no longer move with the rest of the group until it is left far away from the rest of the group so such animal becomes solitary and no one will be knowing when and where it has exactly died from. 

Gorilla Day by Day Activity

Gorilla Nest building

Mountain gorillas engage in a variety of activities throughout the day, including feeding, resting, and moving. However, they have a consistent habit of constructing their own nests for the purpose of sleeping at night. It is noteworthy that these animals construct fresh night nests each night, so avoiding sleeping on their prior nests. The animals move away from their night nests during the day, which prevents them from retracing their path back.

Even if they don’t move far from their previous nesting spot, they still need to create new nests.In this instance, the Bweza family has been recorded nesting in a particular location for three consecutive nights, although they did not sleep in the nests from the prior night. Each member of the group is responsible for constructing its own nest, a task that is limited to individuals ranging from juveniles to silverbacks.newborns must share night nests with their mothers because they are unable to create nests for themselves.

 

However, as the newborns reach the age of 3, their mothers must begin teaching them how to make nests, primarily during daytime while they are resting. Mountain gorillas construct resting nests during the daytime for the purpose of taking a break if necessary. They construct their nests using pliable tree branches and leaves. Typically, they build nests both on the ground and in trees. However, the dominant male gorillas, known as silverbacks, primarily prefer to nest on the ground due to their weight. Some tree branches may not be able to support their bulk during the night, so they opt for ground nests to prevent any potential falls.

On the other hand, females and younger gorillas of different ages are capable of nesting in trees as well. Mountain gorillas typically sleep in their nests throughout the night. They begin constructing their nests between 6:30pm and 7:00pm to prepare for the night. The following morning, they leave their nests between 6:30am and 7:00am. However, during rainy seasons, it is rare to find them still in their night nests even at 8:00am. This is because they become sluggish in cold weather and wait for the dew to evaporate from the grass before they start moving.

Upon emerging from their nests, the dominant male gorilla, known as the silverback, determines the location where the troop will forage for food throughout the day. Migrating to mountain gorilla habitats is a necessary and regular action for them. The rangers prioritize accessing the nests as it allows them to determine the number of gorillas in a specific family, as well as their individual classifications and ages.This is accomplished by quantifying the quantity of nests and examining the dimensions of the feces in order to ascertain their developmental phases.

Gorillas consistently defecate in their night nests, which aids in determining group composition and monitoring purposes. This practice ensures an accurate count of individuals that spent the night in a specific group, and allows for easy identification of any deaths or births that occurred at night nests.

The size of the feces can indicate the age of an individual gorilla. Adult males, known as silverbacks, tend to have larger feces, measuring about 7.3+ cm. Adult and subadult females, as well as blackbacks, have feces ranging from 5.5 to 7.2 cm. Juveniles have feces measuring approximately 4.0 to 5.4 cm, while infants have feces ranging from 1 to 3.9 cm. These variations in size are due to differences in the amount of food consumed by each gorilla in the group.

The age of a the gorilla that slept in a particular nest can be determined by the size of the feces found in that nest, except in the case of the silverback’s nest, where silver hairs are often left behind due to scratching.Examining their feces also aids in monitoring their health condition, since ill individuals often have parasitic worms present in their poor Each member of the group constructs its own nest, except for the dependent newborns who rely on their mothers. The mother and her young share the same nest for the night, while the others create their own nests.

The mother will instruct the infant on how to construct nests for themselves, often when they are around 3-4 years old. This teaching process primarily occurs during daytime while the mother is napping. Mountain gorillas construct nests during diurnal periods of repose, often lasting approximately one hour.When constructing nests for the night, they have a tendency to create nests around themselves, while the black-backed individuals position their nests slightly apart from the rest of the family. During nesting, individuals exhibit a defensive behavior where the females position themselves in the center, while the alpha male and other subadult males nest on the sides around the females. This arrangement serves as a protective measure, requiring them to maintain close proximity to one another.

Gorillas have specific reasons for not sleeping in their previous night nest, which include:

Upon waking up, a gorilla family typically moves away from their previous night’s nest. However, this often results in them traveling a greater distance and subsequently being unable to find their way back to their original nesting spot. Additionally, they may find themselves far from a suitable nesting location by the evening, causing them to relax and nest wherever they happen to be.Gorillas often defecate in their night nests upon waking up due to their sluggishness and reluctance to move away. Consequently, they end up leaving their nests with a strong odor, as the smell of the dung repels them.