The silverback might sire the majority of infants, but subordinates reproduce, too. Many mountain-gorilla groups include several adult males some have as many as nine. It’s certainly not the stereotypical image you have of male mountain gorillas.” They’ll let the infants do things to them that they wouldn’t let even a subadult get away with. Even males that aren’t interested will let infants climb on their back, or sit under them while eating. Contrary to the common portrait of male gorillas as aggressive, chest-thumping animals, “they can be very gentle, or even loving. “I often describe it as babysitting,” Rosenbaum says. The males, whether silverbacks or subordinates, will cuddle infants, play with them, welcome them into their nests, and just plain hang out with them. Though Isabukuru’s fondness for infants was especially striking, such behaviors are fairly common among the mountain gorillas of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, the same group that Dian Fossey studied. Isabukuru “would routinely pick Mushya up, groom him, and try to get him to interact, when Mushya clearly wanted to be doing something else, like playing with his age-mates.” “One infant, named Mushya, was his favorite,” says Stacy Rosenbaum, an anthropologist at Northwestern University. Isabukuru, a silverback mountain gorilla that lived in Rwanda until his death last year, was known for being exceptionally affectionate toward the infants in his group.
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