Do Mountain Gorillas live in families?

Are mountain gorillas a family unit? Known as the “human cousins,” mountain gorillas are intelligent, large, and endangered animals that share 98% of their DNA with humans. There are two species of gorillas: “mountain gorillas” and “lowland gorillas.” While mountain gorillas are found in central Africa, lowland gorillas are kept in captivity, or “zoos.”

They can be found in Mgahinga National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in Uganda. Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. Gorillas in the Virunga are gregarious and timid primates that live in groups known as troops: Harem sizes vary greatly, ranging from 30 to 60 family members.
The largest gorilla family, with 65 members, was discovered in Rwanda.

An adult silverback male gorilla is mature enough to be the head of a family that includes multiple adult females and their offspring. Nonetheless, 40% of mountain gorillas are closely related adult males.
Males battle for dominance because there are more families than men in the family “troop.”
The mountain gorilla family goes about their daily lives by playing, feeding, grooming, and wandering around the jungle.

When the silverback passes away, the group elects a new leader, who is typically the deceased leader’s eldest son.
The female mountain gorilla leaves another family before having children when she is 8 to 10 years old. The female reproduces with her original family because it is her permanent family, even if late entrants are not seen as having the advantages of high status.

A male gorilla will stay alone until he starts a family of his own, even though he broke away from his parents because there were no prospects for breeding. The man separates from his parents to start his own family and raise his own children, which starts a multi-year process.

There are twelve mountain groups in Uganda, including the Mgahinga National Park family, where gorillas reside in families.

The four sectors of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are home to these families; the Rushaga sector is home to five gorilla families: Bweza, Nshongi, Kahungye, Busingye, and Mishaya. Bitukura, Oru Zongo, and Kya Guriro are among the families in Ruhija; Rushegura, Habinyanja, and Mubare are among the three families in the Buhoma sector; the Nkuringo is the lone family in Nkuringo; and the final group is known as the Nyakagezi in Mgahinga National Park.

This provides the complete explanation for why mountain gorillas live in families.