Shinda's group is led by the dominant silverback gorilla named Shinda, who was born in 1977 when Dr. Fossey was in the mountain forests studying the gorillas. Today, Shinda is a large, handsome full-grown adult who maintains a strong leadership of his group, even though there are a number of young silverbacks in the group who pose an increasing challenge to his authority. This multi-male group structure has been very interesting for our researchers to observe, since there are only a limited number of females to go around! As dominant silverback gorilla, Shinda should be assured of breeding with any females who demonstrate their readiness. However, it is clear that some of the females have encouraged other silverbacks for copulations in recent years, causing a certain amount of instability within the group. Currently two other mature silverbacks -- Ntmbara and Ugenda – alternately seem to rise to second in command, with one or the other being out of favor.
In 2005, Ntambara (above) had numerous skirmishes with Shinda and Ugenda, but still persisted in remaining in the group. Later in the year, Shinda’s tolerance for Ntambara then began to rise, while Ugenda seemed less in favor. Still later, things returned back to the old status quo, with Ugenda retaking position as Shinda’s right hand and Ntambara being forced back to the periphery of the group.
