A Birth in Isabukuru's Group

ORIGINAL: Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund

Friday, July 06, 2012

Isaro and her newborn. Photo by Keiko Mori

This week in the field was particularly dense with events involving the gorillas monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center. One of those events was the happy news reported by the trackers for Isabukuru’s group on Tuesday, July 3 when they saw female Isaro with a newborn.

The birth was a surprise, as Isaro’s previous infant, Keza, is just 3.2 years old, which is a pretty short inter-birth interval, considering that the average is 3.5 years. Isaro is doing very well, carefully carrying her new infant, who seems to be healthy and of good appetite.

Isaro is a young female, 13 years old. She lost her first infant in 2008 on the day it was born. One year later, she give birth to Keza, a sweet infant female. Since the birth of her new sibling, Keza has spent all her time close to mother Isaro and the infant, suspending, for the moment, all her play activities with other youngsters.

Isabukuru’s group has increased to 12 gorillas. The dominant silverback can be very proud of his growing group, which now includes four infants and six females. Isabukuru has demonstrated a strong paternal instinct with all his offspring, spending considerably more time playing with them than has ever been observed in the silverbacks in other groups.

Veronica