Congo
Maryke Gray
It was very hard to get a good picture of the mother with her
newborn
Last week, I
was carrying out some routine monitoring on the Hirwa group of Gorillas, with
my fellow researcher Nzamurambaho, Muhire, a tracker who often leads me to the
gorillas.
We were monitoring the gorillas early in the morning when a female caught our
attention. We suddenly realised that we were going to witness a gorilla
giving birth. This is incredibly unusual and has only been noted two or three
times in the past. The mother, gave no observable indication that birth was
imminent, and delivered her infant quickly and easily. Like other mammals,
the birth commenced with the water sac which was broken after a couple of
minutes by the mother picking at it. The baby came very quickly (a matter of
minutes from start to finish), the mother picked up the infant and started to
lick her child to clean it. The other members of the family were unaware of
what had taken place and they continued their normal activities, as the female
had moved away from the group into the bamboo to give birth alone. After
giving birth, the female moved back to join the group with her infant, at
which point the other gorillas became aware that a birth had taken place. At
this point there was fighting between all the females over the placenta, as
all the females wanted a share. The silverback had to intervene to calm the
situation down and to protect the new baby and mother. After the situation
had quietened down the females were very curious and all of them came close to
the new mother to observe the new baby.
This infant represents an important contribution to the Virunga mountain
gorilla population which is critically endangered, numbering only
approximately 380 individuals. There survival over the past decade, at the
heart of a long and brutal civil war, is little less than a miracle.
Maryke Gray
Virunga park
