The Mubare gorilla group was the first gorilla group to be habituated
for tourism in Uganda within Bwindi National Park. The group was named
after Mubare hills where it was first sighted by the rangers. The
official habituation of this gorilla group started on 15th October in
1991 and it received its first official visitors on 13th October 1993 (2
years later).
At the time of habituation, the group had only 12 individuals. However
the population went on increasing and by 1996, the group had 18 members.
The group was led by a powerful silverback gorilla named Ruhondeza and
through that time, his group fought many wild groups, attempting to
safeguard its members but in silence lost several individuals. An
example of this was when Makare broke away from Katendegyere group -
which is now completely disintegrated - sustained five fights and took
only 2 individuals. After each of these fights, the family had to move
for a moment to areas around the park offices in Buhoma.
Since 1996, Mubare group has been dropping straight down at high speed.
Some cases include: when the oldest female gorilla named Bukumu had 5
failed young and this made her disappear which left to possibly argue
that she died. There were also other 2 blackbacks gorillas along with
Bob who also disappeared and up to now, no one knows the whereabouts of
them.
Although it has been reported that gorillas only feed on the pith of the
banana plant, this group recently was observed to be removing the peels
and feeding the fruit before it is ripe. Up to this date, Mubare group
gets together peacefully with other habituated groups like Habinyanja,
Rushegura without any fight.
In March 2012, Mubare group was attacked by an unhabituated male and
because Ruhondeza was too old to fight back and protect his family, he
was forced out of his group and then he decided to live a solitary life
until he died on 27th June 2012 in Rubona village near Bwindi National
Park. He could not trust going back to the forest, but he felt more
comfortable spending his last days in a human community.
Ruhondeza during his regime was so jealous and very protective that he
would not allow anything happen to any of his family members. He was
also very friendly to the extent that he allowed human beings to be
around his family because if it was not the case, gorilla tourism would
not have been there to date.
When he died, he was buried at Buhoma Bwindi Park headquarters by the
Uganda Wildlife Authority and the organization will make a monument out
of his grave for remembrance.
The gorilla group in August 2012 is composed of 5 Individuals namely:
Kanyonyi, who is now the leading silverback and he is in charge of
security, determines group movement and disciplines errant members.
Other members include: Muyambi which is a black back gorilla, Kashundwe
and Malaika which are the adult females and Kashundwe who is a baby.
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