MOUNTAIN GORILLA REPRODUCTION IN RWANDA
Mountain Gorilla Reproduction in Rwanda : The mountain gorillas are among the top things to do in Rwanda when you participate in gorilla trekking in volcanoes national park. Rwanda is known for having a number of different activities like chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe national park, canopy walk in Rwanda, Rwanda genocide tour where you can visit the Kigali genocide memorial museum to understand the events that led to the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Tourists can also take part in golden monkey trekking in volcanoes national park, birding in Rwanda can also be taken part in for tourists interested in watching the different bird species like bird species endemic to the Albertine rift, bird species from the Congo biome that can cater for different types of tourists while on Rwanda Safari tour.
For tourists interested in watching the mountain gorillas in order to understand more about their rewarding features of the primates and these can be seen when you participate in gorilla trekking in Mgahinga national park, gorilla trekking in Bwindi impenetrable national park if you’re interested in gorilla trekking in Uganda. You can also participate in gorilla trekking in Virunga national park which will give you the chance to understand more about the mountain gorillas in the park.
Gorilla trekking in Rwanda has gained popularity over the years because of the need for the people to see the endangered primate species with unique aspects but also the fact that the mountain gorillas are the largest living primate. When people visit volcanoes national park, they will be able to understand more about the different features of the gorillas in the wild like: how they co-exist with one another, you will have the chance to understand and the mountain gorilla reproduction which is also another rewarding aspect of the species that will give you the opportunity to understand how often gorillas give birth, their gestation period, how many off springs they give birth to, their ovulation, how they mate with each other and many other interesting features of the mountain gorilla reproduction in Rwanda.
Every gorilla family has a dominant silverback that is the general overseer of the group and has all the mating rights with all the adult females of any gorilla family and if any male in the group mates with them, fights can break out which is among the reasons why gorillas fight. Because the dominant silver has all the mating rights, the females in the group can be seen being aggressive towards one another and this is because they need to attract the attention of the attention of the dominant silverback in order to mate with them. The male silver back can be seen initiating mating by touching the female or making a grunt.
The females are sexually mature at the age of 10 years- 12 years but they can start ovulation around 6 years of age and they remain infertile until they become sexually mature. For the gorillas to gain favour of the dominant silverback, the adult females can be seen enticing the males into mating with them and during the time they can be seen smacking and biting their lips, they can also be seen slapping the ground and if the silverback is attracted to the female, he will mate with the females and interesting about gorillas while, mating they can be seen love making while looking each other in the eyes which is quite fascinating.
Gorillas have a menstrual cycle between 28-33 days with about 3 fertile days that they use to entice the dominant silverback to carry out mating with them. Once a gorilla conceives, it has a gestation of about 8.5 months and usually it gives birth to only one infant at every birth and on rare occasions, they can also give birth to twins and this was seen in Virunga national park and Bwindi impenetrable national park but unfortunately the young ones lost their lives. If you’re lucky enough you will get to see he silverback gorillas in volcanoes national park mating with the adult females and important to note about the gorillas after giving birth is the fact that they will not ovulate up to 3-5 years and females have the chance to have only one baby in about 6-8 years and the adult male who has about 4 females, he can father about 10-20 off springs in 50 years which is also an issue in the efforts of increasing the numbers of the gorillas in the wild hence one of the major reasons why are mountain gorillas are endangered.
For more about gorillas in the wild, you can participate in gorilla trekking in kahuzi biega national park where you will get to understand more about the endangered eastern lowland gorillas in Congo, you can also choose to take part in gorilla habituation in Uganda in Bwindi impenetrable national park where you will be able to understand how the primates are trained to get accustomed to human presence before they are ready for gorilla trekking you can also visit the Senkwenkwe gorilla orphanage where you can volunteer to take care of the orphaned gorillas for a day for a memorable gorilla trekking experience in Africa.
