Ten Congo Gorilla Families.
One of the safari activities that D. R. Congo is popular for is gorilla trekking. D.R. Congo is one of the three countries harboring these endangered species, which have been habituated into many gorilla families living with in the vast Virunga mountains, and these can often be visited for a memorable gorilla trekking safari. There are ten known gorilla families habituated in D.R. Congo and these live in family units known as troops or groups. Each group is led by a dominant silverback who directs activities of the troop, as well as retains mating rights over all females in the troop. Sometimes mature females often migrate to other troops to allow for cross breeding and improve offspring quality.
Habituation of these primates started officially in 1994 and this activity involves allowing gorillas to get familiar with human presence by increasing time they spend with humans until they are used to the experience and no longer see human beings as a threat.
After two years, gorillas are then fully habituated in a family and this similarly improves their quality of life. These are then usually assigned names after popular rangers and age, sex and unique nose prints for identification purposes. After habituation, visitors can then be allowed to track each of these families and 8 gorilla permits are sold per day for each family.
Over the years, the number of families has increased to 10 and each of these are unique and have peculiar history;
Gorilla Families in Virunga National Park.
- Kabirizi Family.
This family was first habituated in 1994. Most of the members of this family were formerly part of the Zungurika troop, which was led by Zungurika and has interesting history altogether. Later when Zungurika died, Ndungutse, his son took over leadership as the dominant silverback until 1997 when he was killed by poachers, and these were arrested and charged. Ndungutse’s son, Buhanga then took over leadership until February 1998 when Buhanga clashed with Kabirizi and the former got killed.
A matriarch, Nsekuye then led the family briefly until one formerly solitary silverback identified as Munyanga took over leadership of the family. Munyanga and Kabirizi later had clashes and the result was Kabirizi taking over all of the females from Munyaga’s troop. With this, Kabirizi’s troop got to grow to up to 36 members by 2012, but Kabirizi’s son later broke off in 2013 with about 20 members to start the Bageni family. This led to reduction of the Kabirizi family over time, but it later picked up and has grown to over 25 members in the last decade.
2. Bageni Family
This family started off after conflict between Bageni and his father Kabirizi of the Kabirizi family, which saw Bageni leaving the Kabirizi troop with 20 members to start the Bageni family. These included 8 females, including his mother, Mapendo, and others Kamoso and Ntamuvulira. One other known silverback on this group was Kanamahalagi. He later managed get another female from the Kabirizi troop in 2015, leaving only 3 females on Kabirizi’s troop. In May 2019, Bageni again managed to get 2 females from a 40-member troop led by Willungunla after a clash.
The Bageni family has grown over the years to over 30 members. It has had over 19 births and 6 deaths and still expanding in size.
3. Mapuwa Family
The Mapuwa family was led by Mapuwa, a dorminant silverback who left the family of his father, Rugendo in 1995. He, together with his brother Ruzirabwoba left the family to live in solitude for about 3 years. He then went on to clash with other dorminant silverbacks, especially Lulengo, from whose family he acquired two female adults. He went on to acquire 4 more members after a clash with the Rugabo and Kwitondo troops in 1999.
By 2009, the group had more than doubled to 15 members, with many births and immigration of new members. In 2017, Mapuwa was overthrown by Mvuyekure as dorminant silverback and left the family temporarily but later got to return and together with Mvuyekure are the silverbacks of this family. The family has now grown to over 24 members and is still growing.
4. Rugendo Family.
This family is one of the oldest family and one of the first to be habituated in Jomba, Others being Rugabo and Zungurika. The troop which originally had about 10 members later doubled before a clash between Rugendo and his son Humba made it to split into two in December 1998.
Rugendo was later murdered in 2001 by rebels around Bukima sector, which saw leadership of the group move to Senkwekwe, a son to Rugendo up to 2007. He was later killed by rangers with four others, leaving the group leaderless.
This lead to the creation of the Senkwekwe center, a world’s only sanctuary in Virunga for safeguard omg the gorillas orphaned through poaching and conflict in Congo. However, later in 2008, the group later got under leadership of Bukima, a formerly solitary silverback. It is believed he discovered they were leaderless and took them over.
5. Lulengo family
This family was originally led by Rugabo alias Marcel until 1994 when he got murdered together with 2 female members during a poaching raid which saw the kidnap of a juvenile called Mvuyekure. It is believed the poachers had a plan of selling him in Uganda but these were later intercepted. Lulengo was left as dorminant silverback to the 12 members that were left.
The family then later grew until 1998 when a clash with Mapuwa saw most of the troop move to the Mapuwa troop. Later in 2014, a clash with Rugendo saw a new female, Bagambe move to Lulengo’s troop, and with more birthday and one emigration, the troop has grown to over 11 members.
6. Munyaga Family
This family was formerly unhabituated and thus was difficult to track but was known to rangers due to its constant clashes with the Buhanga family before 1998. This later saw movement of two brothers, Kasole and Mawazo moving from Buhanga to Munyaga. The family was later habituated and happens to harbor one unique member called Kadogo who is also the only bald- headed gorilla in the Mikeno sector.
Munyaga also later got to take over members of the Buhanga troop after a feud between Kabirizi and Buhanga left Buhanga dead, but Kabirizi later mounted a clash on the family and claimed all the former members of the Buhanga family. Multiple clashes on the Munyanga family later saw drop in the number from 12 to 6 members. Between 2007 to 2008 however, this region was a harbor for CNDP rebels and Munyaga disappeared mysteriously around the time. Mawazo then rose to become the dominant silverback and has expanded the troop to over 10 members following several births and emigration.
7. Humba Family
This family was created around 1998 after a break off from the Rugendo family. Conflicts between Humba and his father Rugendo saw the group split up into two equals, one half moving to form the Humba family. Humba moved with his brother Nyakamwe who later developed into a silverback in the Humba troop. By 2009, the group had grown to over 17 members. However, in April 2014, conflicts between the brothers saw a split of the family and Nyakamwe broke off with 10 members leaving Humba with only 6 members.
Humba later got to grow with addition of more members. A clash with Munyaga saw one adult female, Kakule move to the Humba troop. The family later got to register several births and only two deaths and is still growing. It is also the calmest family in the region and is often tracked preferably. There is a conflict between Humba and his son Mahundure for leadership of this troop.
8. Nyakamwe Family
This family came into existence in 2014 and was originally part of the Rugendo family. Nyakamwe together with his brother Humba left the Rugendo family to form the Humba family in 1998, with Nyakamwe as the surbodinate male. However, on 5th April 1998, a confrontation between the brothers caused a split in the family and Nyakamwe left to create another troop with 10 members, leaving Humba with only 6.
Nyakamwe family later got another female, Kabila, after a confrontation with Kabirizi troop on 20th August 2015. The family has registered at least 6 births, 3 deaths and one migration since and has grown to over 15 members.
9. Wilungula group
This gorilla family is one of the newly habituated families in the region. It stays around the Kikereri area and has about 42 members including 4 silverbacks. Identification of the members is however still ongoing but the family is open to trekking.
10. Baraka Family
This family led by a dominant silverback, Baraka, lives around Gikere and has at least 19 members. This family is under habituation and is in the final stages. Identification of members is also ongoing and it will soon be available for trekking.
