Gorilla Health Threat:

Gorilla-Inflicted Trauma

Physical injury or trauma is the leading cause of death in mountain gorillas. Trauma can be human-induced (such as injuries caused by snares), the result of accidents, or caused by other gorillas. When taking over a group or acquiring new females, silverbacks sometimes commit infanticide on the other male’s infants, so that their mothers will start reproductively cycling again, enabling the new males to father their own offspring with the females. Silverbacks and blackbacks, with their long, sharp canine teeth, can inflict serious injuries when fighting with each other for dominance. Occasionally, adult females and youngsters get caught in the middle of fights and are injured.

While infanticide and fighting are natural occurrences in the gorilla population, the Gorilla Doctors will sometimes intervene to save individuals suffering from life-threatening injuries. Geneticists believe that because the mountain gorilla population is so small and genetic diversity is vital to the species’ survival, that individual gorillas contributing to the gene pool warrant life-saving veterinary care. The conservation personnel including the veterinarian team never step in to stop infanticide or violence as it is happening, since it is a natural behavior. However, the team may choose to intervene if the veterinarians and host government feel it is in the best interest of the population and/or the individual and the gorilla appears to have a chance at recovery with medical help.

For example, the Gorilla Doctors intervene in the case of badly injured breeding-age females. Unlike males, which may never succeed in leading their own family, almost all healthy adult females will have the opportunity to produce additional offspring. For this reason, the veterinary team performed multiple interventions on the adult female Samehe from Nkuringo group in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park recently, who suffered a serious head wound. Sadly, she succumbed to an infection. The Gorilla Doctors have also intervened in several instances when youngsters were injured.