On 18 February 2009, Tuver, writting in the Tshiaberimu blog at WildlifeDirect announced the death of two gorillas. The first death was of a tiny baby that had just been born while the second was of an elderly silverback who'd been around for ages.
While it is sad for the Tshiaberimu rangers and the world as a whole to lose two valuable gorillas in close succession, it is however comforting to see that they died naturally other than by being shot by bushmeat poachers.
The elderly silverback, Nzanzu, who had lived with his son, Mukokya, until his death was part of the original Kipura family, which split in 2002 allowing Nzanzu to form the Lusenge family with adult female Mwengesyali and their son. In 2007 however 2007 Mwengesyali had left Nzanzu and gone to form a new group, the Mutsunga group.
Nzanzu had been reported by rangers to have been looking quite old and frail in recent days. An outopsy is being carried out to determine the cause of death but rangers at Tshiaberimu believe that he was just old.
RIP Nzanzu.
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