Gorilla Behavior in the Wild, Willing to Adopt Orphaned Gorilla Children. Page all

KOMPAS.com – Researchers found that gorilla apparently willing to adopt another orphaned gorilla cub.

This behavior is also a common thing to happen to primates this.

A few years ago, four female mountain gorillas left their nests. Not only did they leave their partner-a sick alpaca gorilla-but also their babies who were not old enough to feed on their own.

Gorilla females may feel that their offspring are safer with their sick father than new males who often kill babies from other groups.

Also read: The Population of Mountain Gorillas Is Increasingly Threatened by Covid-19, Why?

In fact, most of the mammals that are abandoned by their mothers are usually at risk of premature death.

However, citing Sciencemag, Thursday (25/3/2021), researchers received a heartwarming surprise. The baby gorilla who was abandoned was then cared for by a male gorilla named Kubaha.

“Kubaha lets the babies sleep in their nests and climb on them,” says primate expert Tara Stoinski.

Kubaha’s willingness to become a foster father for an abandoned gorilla is also very common in mountain gorillas.

This was revealed after researchers conducted an analysis of 53 years of data on mountain gorillas Gorilla Fund’s Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda.

In the study researchers focused on data from 59 gorillas between 2 and 8 years of age who lost their mothers or were orphaned before they were fully mature.

Researchers then compared the survival of the animals throughout their lives with the survival of 139 non-orphaned gorillas.

They also compared reproductive success and social rank in adulthood.

The result, the researchers said, was that when young mountain gorillas lost their parents, they did not have a greater risk of dying because other group members protected them.

In addition, young gorillas also suffer no long-term effects on reproductive ability or lose their place in social hierarchies.

Some young gorillas who lost their mothers even became dominant in their group.

Also read: Rare Gorilla in the World Caught on Camera, Carrying Child on Its Back

This study of gorilla behavior also reveals that caring behavior does not only occur in humans.

It also shows that fathers also play an important role in the lives of young primates.

“This shows that paternal concern is very much in our primate lineage,” added Duke Susan Alberts, an ecologist who was also not involved in the study.

Behavioral ecologist Mattew Zipple from Duke University, who was not involved in the study, expressed enthusiasm for the study.

“This paper is very surprising because we know that in primates and most social mammals, losing a mother when young is very bad,” said Behavioral ecologist Mattew Zipple of Duke University, who was not involved in the study.

The reason is, the opposite was found in the Zipple study with 10 other leading primate experts.

The study found that chimpanzees, baboons and young monkeys that rely on mother support are more likely to die young when they lose their mothers at an early age.

Also read: Scientists discover what gorillas and humans have in common in socializing

That’s because their mother feeds, cleans, provides social support and protects from predators or other male attacks.

Even if orphaned macaques survive into adulthood, they have a lower social rank and produce fewer offspring.

Other research has documented a similar risk of mother loss to other social mammals such as killer whales, elephants and hyenas.

Now researchers need to comb through decades of data to see what behavior is adoption this also occurs in other species.

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