December 2, 2011

Is Lone Silverback Gwiza Giving up on Attempt to Join Group?

Lone silverback Gwiza, who has been relentlessly pursuing Titus group for two weeks (attempting to either acquire female "Fat" or join the group) has now vanished. The Fossey Fund Karisoke trackers discovered his night nest amidst the group’s on Thursday morning, but since then they have been unable to locate him.

Interestingly, the Titus group’s dominant silverback Rano showed very little interest in Fat prior to Gwiza’s interaction with the group and has not been observed copulating with the female in a very long time. However yesterday, with Gwiza absent from the group, Rano took the opportunity to seal his dominance over the female.

With the many different scenarios that could have played out from this interaction, no one thought that Gwiza would give up and strike back out on his own after expending so much effort. It is of course possible that Gwiza is ranging nearby and will attempt to re-enter the group sometime in the coming days.

Jessica Burbridge, Field Communications Officer