Another Silverback Gorilla Dies, Affects Gorilla Trekking In Uganda

A dominant gorilla living in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park found in the Southwestern part of Uganda was confirmed dead by the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) in a recent press announcement.

The senior warden in command of the Southern area of Bwindi Conservation area John Justice Tibesigwa said that It is depressing to announce the of a silverback – which was the leader of the Rushegura group.

Mwirima passed away on Monday morning at about 11.50am not far from the BMCA headquarters in Buhoma.

In addition he informed us that Mwirima’s bad health was initially detected 2 weeks back by trackers when they observed that he was not eating well and was lagging behind of his group.

One month back, Mishaya another alpha male silverback died and His failure health wise was attributed to the twisting of his intestines.

UWA will soon release the ultimate postmortem report on the death of Mishaya regarding the investigations concerning the cause of his death.

Dr. Andrew Seguya the executive director of UWA said that Mwirima who was approximately thirty five years old, was still very young considering the fact that gorillas can live up to seventy years of age. He added that the life expectancy for mountain gorillas is fifty years.

On 23rd February, 2014 A doctor was called in from the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project to intervene. He suggested that mwirima should be constantly monitored until advance intervention which the doctor had actually programmed for Monday.

sadly, his condition worsened calling for urgent intervention.

Mr. Tibesigwa called in doctors to give Mwirima artificial respiration once he observed that his life was fading away.

During the doctor’s intervention, they found a wound in the gorilla’s mouth which had caused him difficulty in before he was administered treatment.

“Mwirima” which means darkness, was the name given to the dominant male of Rushegura group. Actually he had separated from the Habinyanja habituated family with 13 other gorillas 2 years back and began his family known as Rushegura.

His family was called Rushegura since the area in which the initial Habinyanja group from which this family separated was called Rushegura.

From the time of separation, Mwirima has led his group that has been a source of amazement as well as high regard to the thousands of different tourists that have tracked this particular group.

Mwrima has left behind a family of fourteen individuals now under the headship of Kabukojo a black back helped by Kalembezi another black back.

Also in the statement by UWA, we were informed that Maraya took away one of the adult females in this group just last week when Mwirima cut off himself from the rest of the group because of his ill health.

This heartrending occurrence has forced this group to move deeper into the forest to avoid more interaction with other gorilla families that live inside the Buhoma area.

Bwindi supports over half of the total population of the surviving 800 gorillas in the world. The other gorillas are found in DR Congo, Mgahinga Gorilla National park in Uganda and Rwanda.