Gorilla family interactions: gorilla trek uganda, Rwanda

Gorilla family  interactions, the mountain gorillas’ meeting in one area is always a rare happening despite the fact that these animals don’t possess territories as they feed on home ranges sometimes their home ranges may overlap and they end up meeting in one area. But still when it happens that two groups have met the interactions are not always positive and there is a lot to take place in that area where they have met which include;

• The silverbacks of the both families will have to prove their strength so as to secure the safety of their family members   . This may involve them to do a lot of mock charging ,chest beating  making scaring grants , breaking of the tree branches , all these are signs of showing off their strength as a way of scaring away the other silverback or the other close family .Failure to scare each other ,the two silverbacks will physically meet hence resulting into a fight which is one way of depending their families ,this majorly happens if the two silverbacks are not related and if it so happens that the two silverbacks are related they will do mock charging both silverbacks may draw a line demarcation on the ground to which their respective family members should not cross and after some time each one of them will move away with his family members  . This has been commonly observed whenever Habiyanja family meets with Rushegura family but still on the other hand if they are not related they engage themselves into serious fight which in most cases results in to serious injuries which may lead into eventual death. If both or one of the families has got the Black back or the young silverback, the dominant male will run away with the females and the black back or the subordinate male will remain fighting with the other .incase of any success in the fight , the weaker silverback always stands a chance of losing its family members to the other silverback 

The females transfer from one group to another

• The females transfer from one group to another.  This has been observed that when they meet and fight the loser of the fight suffers a lot in a way that the other silverback may take away the females from him besides that this is an opportunity for the young females to transfer from one group to another , if the females with u weaned  babies transfer to the other group the dominant males may opt to kill the infants but this is a rare happening for the females with unweaned babies to transfer to the new group because they  fear to loss their young ones but so dominant males can still tolerate the infants which are not their offsprings in the family not to kill them .killing the infants of another silverback is a common phenomenon among the mountain gorillas because this is one way of ensuring the dominance of the group  

Sometimes the interactions amongst gorillas can be between the solitary males and the family with different individual set up. this kind of interaction is mainly targeted for grabbing females by the solitary male which in most cases are not successful majorly when the interaction is with a multi male family which makes it easy difficult for the solitary male to defeat them but incase the interaction is between the solitary male with a one male family the fights are always intensive which always leaves serious injuries for both silverbacks. In these kind of interactions is when females majorly the sub adult females at the age of 6-8 years prefer to voluntarily join and form up a family with the solitary males .In case of any success in this kind of interaction for the solitary male ,females with un weaned off infants may still try to resist to join the solitary male because of fear to loss their infants as it is a common behavior amongst mountain gorillas to always kill the infants which are not their offsprings as away ensuring dominance of the family and it is also fear to be challenged by these infants when they grow old mainly when they are males. 

• In a multi male family  interactions within the family between the various silverbacks in the same family are as well common due to one’s desire to be dominant over the others and they fight for the mates in the same family , these kind of interactions are not always intensive but if one cannot contain  the intolerant behaviors of the alpha male of the family one may opt to move out of the family to live a solitary life