Mishaya

Mishaya

Gorilla Family

Mishaya

8 MEMBERS: LAST UPDATED 22/02/2022

Mishaya gorilla group is a new group found in Rushaga sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and is led by dominant Silverback Tinfayo. The initial birth of Mishaya group occurred in July 2010 when Shongi group split into two with a splinter section led by Silverback Mishaya. On 3rd February 2014 Mishaya group received a tough blow when its sole leader ‘Mishaya’ died from an obstruction of the intestinal gut hence forth resulting into a dispersal of the remnant group members as they had no other adult male to exercise leadership. Some of the members ended up joining Bweza group, others joined Bikingi group while the whereabouts of more others was not immediately known until May 2018 when they were re-discovered under the leadership of Silverback “Tinfayo” – a former member of Shongi group who left his former family around 2012 with one adult female (Shida) and her infant (Rotary). Re-habituation of the group became inevitable to beef-up close monitoring of the already habituated members.  Mishaya (New) group is composed of 8 members including 1 Silverback, 5 Adult females, 1 Juvenile and 1 Infant.

  • 1

    Silverbacks

  • 5

    Adult females

  • 1

    Blackbacks

  • 00

    Sub-adult females

  • 1

    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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