HOW YOUNG MOUNTAIN GORILLA TOOK CARE OF HIS SIBLING AFTER MOTHER DEATH

By Joseph Ondiek

On 20 October 2018, the cruel hand of death visited the Sabyinyo gorilla family and claimed a female mountain gorilla called Kampanga. Kampanga was 35 years old when she died of natural causes, presumably of illness related to old age.

Her sickness was first reported in the year 2013 when she already had started showing some signs of weakness. Kampanga was then treated of respiratory illness that had spread to the gorilla family and affected several other gorillas.

According to an article appearing in the Gorilla Doctors website, due to the severity of Kampanga’s clinical signs, park authorities and veterinarians agreed that an intervention was warranted.  However, due to the risk of a full anesthetic event, they decided to dart her with an antibiotic and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.

But what is interesting is that immediately upon her demise in her Volcanoes National Park habitat, which is part of the wider Virunga massif where the remaining 1004 mountain gorillas can be found, her young son Ikerekezo immediately took over the responsibility of taking care of his younger siblings, notably Icyemezo as seen in video taken from the park. Kampanga had 7 babies at the time of her death.

Icyemezo, which means “Decision” was only given the name in 2016 during the Kwita Izina ceremony where 21 other baby gorillas were also named.

Mountain gorillas have been known to show intelligent characteristics of human beings and Ikerekezo’s action to show kindness and tender loving care to his siblings goes a long way in confirming that these iconic primates live a social life and they also can take care of each other when tragedy like death strikes family.

In a video seen by the writer, Ikerekezo can be seen snuggling his younger baby brother at a time when it was heavily raining in the park. He hides the baby under his stomach, just like mother hen does to her younger chicks, and when the rain is over, he leads him to a warmer place so that they can seek shelter together

 “It’s just amazing how these gorillas just socially behave like human beings. I’ve seen them going out to help their kith and kin who are in trouble in the many years I’ve worked as a tour guide in the Virunga massif,” says a tour guide who didn’t want to be named because he was not the spokesman of his company.

The action by Ikerekezo to take care of his younger brother can be seen in the context of the behavior of wider gorilla families. According to an article, “ How Does a Gorilla Father Treat His Children” appearing in an online journal called Social Life, young animals always search out the group leader who usually is their father as well. They frequently stay close to him, they lean on him and include him in their games. For them a close relationship with their father can be vital. He protects the infants and his care increases their chances of survival if their mother dies or if she leaves the group. In such a case the silverback male is usually the only one who looks after them intensively. He even all allows them to sleep in his nest.

However, at the time Ikerekezo was bravely shielding his brother from torrential rains that of late have been pounding the gorilla habitat in this part of the Virunga massif, the dominant silverback was nowhere to be seen, and presumably Ikerekezo took it upon himself to protect his younger brother, just like we have seen in the human being families when older siblings take it upon their shoulders to take care of their younger siblings in times of trouble.

On the other hand, according to the article, silverbacks have been observed to deliberately kill babies - especially in mountain gorillas. Usually this is the case after a female transferred to another male together with her baby or if a new leading male takes over. This behaviour, called infanticide, is interpreted as a means to shorten the time until the baby's mother becomes fertile again and the new male can sire his own offspring with her.

“Ikerekezo took over the responsibility of his dead mother and this shows how he is kind and responsible at a young age. May be one day when he comes of age, he also will be a dominant silverback and have his own family because he has also through this act exhibited leadership skills,” says the local guide.