KYAGURILO

KYAGURILO

Gorilla Family

KYAGURILO

6 MEMBERS: LAST UPDATED 31/01/2024
Kyaguliro group formerly called Rukara group is found in Ruhija tourism sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and is led by Silverback Kasoni following the exit of the lead Silverback Rukara to form a new group. Kyaguliro group is solely dedicated for gorilla research by Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Evolutionary Anthropology. MPI researches mainly on the group’s behavioral ecology and conducts daily monitoring visits to the group. Kyaguliro’s habituation began in 1995 and in 2015 sudden death occurred to the group head Rukina. Rukina succumbed to an electric shock due to lightening. After Rukina’s demise, the group was left under the leadership of an inexperienced young Silverback (Mukiza) who was later ambushed by an immigrating Silverback (Rukara) from the Bitukura group, this fueled a split of the group into two – (Rukara and Mukiza) in May 2016. Recently, the group split into two, leaving the original Kyaguliro group with only 4 members. Kyaguliro group is known for spending most of its time in the inner forest and very rarely gets close to the forest’s peripherals. The group is composed of 6 individuals including 1 Silverback, 4 Blackbacks and 1 Infant.

  • 1

    Silverbacks

  • 00

    Adult females

  • 4

    Blackbacks

  • 00

    Sub-adult females

  • 0

    Juveniles

  • 1

    Infants

About mountain gorillas

The eastern gorilla is a large hominid with a large head, broad chest, and long arms. It has a flat nose with large nostrils. The face, hands, feet and breast are bald. The fur is mainly black, but adult males have a silvery “saddle” on their back. When the gorilla gets older, the hair on the saddle of the back becomes white, much like the gray hair of elderly people. This is why the older males are called silverbacks. Grauer’s gorilla has a shorter, thicker, deep black fur, while the mountain gorilla has a more bluish color. The mountain gorilla is slightly smaller and lighter than Grauer’s gorilla, but still larger and heavier than the western lowland gorilla and the Cross River gorilla. Males are much larger than females. A full-grown male eastern gorilla typically weighs 140–205.5 kg (309–453 lb) and stands 1.7 m (5.6 ft) upright.

The goal of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP) is to ensure the conservation of mountain gorillas and their regional afromontane forest habitat in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Situated in South-Western Uganda, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a large primeval forest at the edge of the Albertine Rift and the western branch of the East African Rift, at elevations ranging from 1,160 to 2,607 metres. The majestic forest is home to half of the world's population of mountain gorillas.

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