A silverback Gorilla is a mature male gorilla with silver-grey saddle across his hips and back. He is in-charge of leading and protecting the gorilla family/group, usually ranging from five to thirty individuals. He also decides where the group nests, forages (feeds) and where to migrate.
Male gorillas that haven’t developed the silver-grey saddle/hair are referred as Black backs. It is until they develop the silver hair on reaching sexual maturity at 12-13 years that they become silverbacks. The silver-grey hair on their backs and hips are for display as well as communication to other gorillas that they have now reached sexual maturity.
Silverback Gorillas are also the hairiest of all gorillas and are generally large/tall with standing height of 1.5 meters (5 feet) to 1.8 meters (6 feet). A fully grown silverback gorilla weighs averagely 159 kilograms (350 pounds), twice the weight of an adult human being. They also have bony crest on the top of their skulls as well as backs, which is why they have conical heads.
When a gorilla group/family has several silverback gorillas, there will always be competition for dominance, sometimes leading to death or breaking of the family. It is therefore survival for the fittest between the strongest and sometimes the older taking over leadership of the family. Even after taking over leadership, the leader has to continuously be on his feet to avoid taking over his position. Not only that, he is as well responsible for protecting the gorilla group from external threats, like predators (especially lions) and humans (poachers). Decisions on how the group travels each day, where to spend a night and raging for food is entirely made by the dominant Silverback Gorilla.
It is obviously okay for a gorilla group to have several silverback gorillas but the privilege of mating females and siring young ones is only for the dominant silverback. Anyone that is not fine with this arrangement is always allowed to leave and form his own group and this sometimes makes the Silverback gorillas to fight among themselves and the winner eventually takes over leadership. The dominant male sometimes even kills other male infant gorillas of the former group leader to avoid any future threats when they eventually grow up. It is totally normal for silverback gorillas from within the group/family to arise and fight the dominating male in a brutal contestation leading to the old silverback leaving the group for solitary life or die for that matter.
Besides the silverback gorilla, typical gorilla groups also comprise of adult females, black backs, juveniles and infants (who are usually off springs of the dominant silverback gorilla). There are two main species of gorillas – the eastern gorillas which are further sub-divided into mountain gorillas and Eastern lowland gorillas, as well as the western gorillas sub-divided into Cross River Gorillas and western lowland gorillas.
About Gorillas.
Gorillas are divided into two main species-Eastern and Western Gorillas. The Latter is sub-divided into the Western lowland and Cross River Gorillas while the Eastern Gorillas are made up of the Mountain Gorillas and Eastern lowland Gorillas. A fully mature adult male regardless of categorization is a silverback gorilla.
