How do silverback gorillas reproduce

The eastern gorillas are made up of two subspecies namely the mountain gorillas and eastern lowland gorillas while the western gorillas are made up of the Cross River Gorillas and Western Lowland Gorillas. One of the behaviors they share with humans is their reproductive process.

A group of gorillas is usually led by a male known as the silverback. The silverback is the dominant male in the group that consists of infant gorillas, young adults, adult mature gorillas, and females. A gorilla group contains about 30 individual gorillas with the silverback giving directions on migration and activities. It is important to state that gorillas rarely have internal conflicts. What is rarer is conflicts between two gorilla groups. Only lone male gorillas engage a gorilla group in conflict, and this is usually very violent.

Sometimes, it takes the assistance of other adult male gorillas to help the silverback overcome the confrontation from the lone gorilla. Gorillas are mammals with a reproduction behavior similar to that of other hominids. A lot of research has been done to learn about this part of their life, but most of the information currently available comes from individuals in captivity, particularly in the cases of mountain gorillas Gorilla beringei beringei and western lowland gorillas Gorilla gorilla gorilla.

After researching their reproductive behavior, it has been found that all subspecies share many similarities. Similar to humans, Female gorillas give birth to 1 offspring per delivery, and rarely produce twins. Females become sexually mature at years old, while males at years. Female gorillas can reach sexual maturity years earlier, even at years old, and can have their first ovulatory cycle even during their sixth year of life, but they do not start breeding until they are ten years old or later.

One of the most surprising facts is that after their first ovulatory cycle, they are unable to procreate an infant for about two years. Generally, once a female gorilla matures and is ready to breed, she has two options. The first one is to leave the family group and go join another gorilla group where she can mate with another dominant male or silverback.

The reason for this action is to prevent in-breeding or mating with their fathers. This brings us to the next option available to mature female gorillas. They can decide to stay within the family group. However, they will need to put extra effort into avoiding copulation with their fathers.

They often do this by opting to mate with less subordinate males within the group. With the mature males in the gorilla group, the available option is to leave the group and be a loner stealing females from other groups.

This is because it is expected that a male gorilla mates with the female. They could also join a group of bachelor gorillas and try to attract females from other groups. Gorillas are polygamous animals. They can mate and have offspring with more than one female. However, once he starts getting old and losing his dominance and the end of his reproductive cycle is in sight, female gorillas in his group are likely to leave him for other groups with a dominant silverback.

Females in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in managed care have provided information on receptivity. Reproduction Sexual Maturity : Age at first reproduction not yet measured at any Western site.

Life Stages Develop twice as fast as humans Infants years Crawl at 3 months Begin eating some plants at 2. Longevity Unknown in the wild Likely to be about 40 years Maisels et al. Contact Us Email the librarians at library sdzwa. Interactions among various gorilla groups are extremely rare despite the fact that these have been recorded among the western lowland subspecies.

This explains why you cannot see all the gorillas in one park during your gorilla trekking experience. You can visit one gorilla family at a time. External confrontations by lone males or other groups may occur and these are generally very violent however with the help of other mature male gorillas in the group, the silverback is able to defend his family. According to the gorilla breeding customs, the females in a gorilla group are all breaded by the dominant male gorilla known as the silverback.

Mating can happen all year around a process that is normally initiated by the females irrespective of whether they are in estrus or not. There are a number of factors that determine the mating habits of gorillas however, the best way to understanding this is by first comprehending the reproductive cycle of these forest giants. Between the age of 10 and 12, the female gorillas attain sexual maturity with the ovulation cycle beginning earlier at about six 6 years, however, the female stays infertile until 10 years when they are eventually mature.

In fact they would to a certain extent mate with less subordinate males as research has proven. Despite the fact that the dominant silverback creates very strong bonds with the females in his group, as he grows very old and his reproductive cycle is soon coming to an end, the female in the group begin leaving him to join other groups. The few that are loyal to him will stay however once that silverback dies they join other groups.

In fact the females can change groups multiple times as way of protecting their off-springs especially in case of a new dominant silverback taking over. Well this is a question that leaves many wildlife enthusiasts scratching their heads. Well as earlier mentioned mating can be done all year round with the dominant male silverback mating all the females while they are ovulating.

The mating processing is normally initiated by the female when it is sexually active however there are instances when the dominant silverback male also imitates this process. He does so by advancing towards the female and then he touches her or makes a display with a sound.