![]() Fred successfully darted Kanyonyi with the antibiotic Cefazolin in the right thigh at 5:20pm. Although the first dart bounced off of his back, Dr. The team finished prepping the darts and quickly followed the silverback as he moved down into a ravine. Fred prepares a dart of antibiotics for injured silverback Kanyonyi. Fred and Jan discuss medications and dosage amounts prior to darting.ĭr. Jan and Fred made the decision to intervene and administer medications to the injured silverback.ĭrs. There were no visible bones or obvious fractures, but he only used 3 limbs during ambulation. The wounds on his right wrist were becoming infected, with flies buzzing about, and his stomach was not full, indicating he was not feeding normally. He also had a bite wound to his right shoulder, a wound on his right elbow, and superficial wounds on the right side of his face and ear. The lacerations on Kanyonyi’s wrists were deep and necrotic. Silverback Kanyonyi had wounds on his right brow and right ear. The lacerations on Kanyonyi’s right wrist were deep and becoming infected. Weak and injured silverback Kanyonyi laid down on his side during the veterinary assessment. Lethargic and weak, the large male laid down on his right side, holding his injured wrists out for us to clearly observe. The wounded silverback slowly wandered up over a hill and through the vegetation, coming to rest close to the team. Kanyonyi made his appearance while the Gorilla Doctors were busy unloading the intervention kits. Gorilla Doctors, with Gryphon Wild Film crew, trek into Bwindi to find the Mubare group.Īfter 7 hours of trekking up and down the steep slopes of Bwindi, we finally located the group up in the Kamushongi hills. We gathered a faction of porters to help carry the intervention kits and film equipment and set off into the forest. Our team assembled before sunrise, ate a quick breakfast and headed to the park headquarters. We immediately mobilized and made the 5-hour journey to Buhoma, Uganda (location of Bwindi park headquarters), arriving around midnight. Jan, Fred and I were at Traveler’s Rest in Kisoro, meeting with TV host/biologist Niall McCann and the Gryphon – Wild Planet Productions film crew when we received the call from UWA that Kanyonyi had been severely injured and was in need of a veterinary assessment and possible intervention. The two silverbacks interacted most recently on Saturday, January 18 th, leaving Kanyonyi with various lacerations and bite wounds. Kanyonyi, dominant silverback of Mubare group in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Adult female Kisho, who is Maraya’s mother, and subadult female Nyampazi transferred out of Mubare group, leaving injured Kanyonyi behind and thus ending Maraya’s 3-year solitary existence in the forest. He finally succeeded in snatching two females from dominant silverback Kanyonyi in a recent series of interactions with Mubare in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. In the past six months, the young silverback has been interacting frequently with Habinyanja, Rushegura, and Mubare group in his quest to obtain females. Lone silverback Maraya was just a blackback when he defected from Habinyanja group in 2011. Two cases are known from Gabon, where the more numerous chimpanzees chased away the gorillas and killed a gorilla infant.Bwindi Silverbacks Fight for Females, Gorilla Doctors Intervene to Treat Injuries Nevertheless, their encounters occasionally result in fatalities. The two species usually try to avoid each other, but sometimes they feed peacefully together in the same tree. This is particularly obvious when fruit ripens and both species are attracted to the same tree. Over a large part of Africa, gorillas and chimpanzees share their habitat and even eat some of the same plant species, making them competitors. Severe aggression is rare in stable gorilla groups, but when two groups meet, the leading silverbacks can sometimes engage in a fight to the death, mainly using their sharp canines to cause deep, gaping injuries. The chestbeat sounds especially impressive in silverback males. ![]() ![]() Gorillas are famous for their display behaviour culminating in the chest beating and loud hooting. Therefore, most differences of opinion are not resolved by fighting, but by displaying and other threat behaviour patterns, without anyone getting injured. Because of their sharp canines and great strength, gorilla males are very dangerous opponents when they are in a fighting mood. ![]()
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