Just like humans, mountain gorillas lead complex lives full of interesting family bonds, leadership struggles, and heartwarming moments. In the misty forests of Central Africa where the gorillas live, a family of gorillas is led by a dominant silverback (a mature male gorilla) who nurtures relationships among his females and offspring while guiding important decisions.
Gorilla trekking excursions provide an intimate glimpse into these fascinating creature’s complex social structures, unique daily rituals, and intriguing communication methods.
In this blog we delve into the daily lives of a mountain gorilla family, their unique social structures, and behaviors. Learn how the gorillas navigate its natural habitat, from intricate nest- building rituals to its foraging habits as well as parental care.
Social Structure of a Mountain Gorilla Family
Mountain gorillas live in family groups called Troops. Typically, a troop consists of one adult male, known as a silverback, several adult females, and their offspring. Sometimes, there may be more than one adult male in a group.
A silverback is a male gorilla at least 14 years old and is identified by the patch of silver hair on its back, which appears as it ages. Also, silverbacks have large canine teeth that grows as the mature.
Both male and female gorillas often leave their original family group when they reach maturity. In mountain gorilla families, females are more likely to leave their birth family than males. When male gorillas mature, they may leave their family to form their own troop, attracting females who are also looking for a new home. However, some male mountain gorillas choose to stay with their original family and become second-in-command to the silverback. If the silverback passes away, these males might take charge or mate with the females.
The Silverback – The Head of the Family – The Leader
In a mountain gorilla family with only one adult male, if the silverback dies, the females and their offspring must find a new group to join because the new leader may harm them. Without the protection of their silverback family, the offspring are at risk, so joining a new group is a way to stay safe.
The silverback is the leader of the gorilla group, making all the decisions, helping settle arguments, deciding where the group goes, leading them to find food, and ensuring everyone is safe and well. Younger male gorillas, called blackbacks, between 8 and 12 years old, support the silverback. They do not have the silver hair on their back like the older silverbacks, but they play a crucial role in protecting the group.
Family Social Bonding
The bond between the silverback and the females is essential for the stability of the family. They maintain their relationships by grooming each other and staying close. Females form strong connections with males for mating opportunities and protection.
Male gorillas generally have weaker social bonds, especially in families with more than one male, where there is a lot of competition for mates. However, all-male groups, they often get along well, playing, grooming, and spending time together.
Family Conflicts
Severe fighting is rare in stable gorilla families, but when two mountain gorilla groups meet, the silverbacks may fight fiercely, using their large canine teeth to cause injuries. While mountain gorillas can sometimes be aggressive, especially between males and females, serious injuries are infrequent. Female gorillas who are related tend to be friendly, but others may act aggressively toward each other. Females may fight for attention from males, and sometimes, a male gorilla might step in to stop the fight.
Reproduction and Parenting in Mountain Gorilla Family
In a mountain gorilla family, female gorillas mature at around 10 to 12 years old, while the males mature about 11 to 13 years old. A female gorilla goes through her first menstrual cycle when she is six years old, but she cannot have babies for the next two years. They usually have their first baby when they are 10 years old. The time between each birth for a female gorilla is about four years. Male gorillas can have babies even before they are full grown.
Mountain gorillas can mate at any time of the year.
Mating
When female gorillas want to mate, they show signs by approaching males slowly while making eye contact. They might reach out or tap the ground to get the male’s attention. Sometimes, females discretely mate with multiple males in the same family. Male gorillas let females know they are interested in mating by getting close to them and making certain sounds of movements. Gorillas have been seen having face to face mating, once considered unique to humans and banonos.
Parenting
Gorilla babies in a family need a lot of care and rely on their mothers to keep them safe. While male gorillas do not help much with the babies, they do spend time teaching them to socialize and bond. The silverback – the head of the family looks out for the babies and protects them from any trouble within the group. For the first months, babies normally stick close to their mothers, sleeping in the same nest and nursing often.
As they grow older, they start spending short periods away from their mothers. Around one year old, they might move a bit further, and by 18 to 21 months, they spend more time apart from their mothers. They also nurse less frequently. When they are about three years old, they enter a phase called the juvenile period and stop nursing. The presence of other playmates in the family, including the silverback, helps reduce any conflicts between mothers and their growing babies.
Communication within the mountain gorilla family
Communication among mountain gorillas is quite fascinating. They have around twenty-five different ways of talking to each other, and they use many of these sounds when moving in thick vegetation. Often you will hear grunts and barks while they are on the move, helping the family member know where everyone is. They usually use these sounds when they need to sort out things among themselves, like when they need to discipline someone.
When there is danger or something to be cautious about, especially when the silverback (the big leader) is involved, you might hear screams and roars. On the flip side, deep and rumbling belches are like signs of happiness and contentment. You will often hear these on a gorilla trekking excursion when they are eating or taking a break, this is their way of chatting within the group.
Mountain gorillas are pretty good at avoiding physical fights in a family. Usually they resolve family conflicts by doing things that look threatening but don’t actually hurt anyone. They have this unique thing called a “ritualized charge display.” It is like a performance with nine steps, including making loud noises, pretending to eat, standing on two legs, throwing stuff, beating their chests, and even slapping the ground. It is their way of saying “Hey, I’m big and strong; let’s not fight.”
Chest beating, a typical behavior of gorillas, also varies in how fast or slow they do it, depending on their size. The males tend to do it more when they want to tell the females in the family that they are ready to make babies. Basically, in gorilla language, it is like they are saying; “I’m strong and ready to be a dad!”
The Gorilla Family Die and how they forage
A mountain gorilla family has a daily routine that includes rest, travel, and feeding. Their diet is mainly plant parts like leaves, stems, and shoots, with only a tiny portion of their diet coming from fruits. Luckily, there is plenty of food for everyone in the family, so they don’t have to compete for food in the tropical mountain jungles of Central Africa. They can live in different places and eat various things.
Mountain gorilla families normally have to travel more to find finds, they also eat insects like ants and termites and use tools like sticks to extract them from their hives.
Surprisingly, mountain gorillas don’t drink much water because their food, like juicy plants, already has a lot of water. Even though it is rare, there have been times when mountain gorillas were seen drinking water.
Nesting –How the Gorilla Family Spends their Night.
Mountain gorillas have a unique way of spending their nights. They create their own beds in the form of nests using branches and leaves. Usually the nests measure between 2 to 5 feet wide, and each gorilla makes its own. The silverback typically chooses a spot where he can keep an eye on all family members.
Unlike chimpanzees and orangutans, gorillas prefer to sleep on the ground instead of in tree branches. When gorilla babies are very young, they sleep with their moms. But as they grow older (around three years old), they start making their own nests, usually close to where their moms sleep.
Interesting, gorillas do not follow a set pattern for building their nightly nests. They use different places, trees, and materials opportunistically. Scientists believe that the gorilla’s nests-building is a form of tool use. They create a new nest every night, even if the family stays in the same place. They usually start making their nests about an hour before it gets dark so that they are ready for a good night’s sleep when it gets dark.
Gorillas sleep a lot – about 12 hours every day, according to Gorilla Fund.
Habitat – Where Mountain Gorillas Live
Mountain gorillas live in East African mountain forests between 2,400 and 4,000 m (8,000 and 13,000 feet) above the sea level. The mountain gorilla’s natural habitat is the lush and misty montane forests that blanket the volcanic slopes of East – Central Africa. These ecosystems are not only vital to the gorillas but also to a myriad of other species that call these dense jungles home.
Mountain gorillas live in two populations, one population stays in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the southwestern Uganda and the other population roams on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains, protected in three national parks – Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, Virunga National Park in DRC, and Volcanoes National Park in northwestern Rwanda.
Unfortunately, habitat loss and human encroachment pose significant threats to these creatures, underscoring the importance of conservation efforts to ensure their survival.
