The silverbacks are male gorillas that develop a silver coat on their backs as they are at the age of 15 years old. Mountain gorillas live in family groups and the silverback heads the family, with several females (usually related) and young ones. The great apes’ social lives can be related to basic human families and half of the remaining Mountain gorillas in the world are found in Bwindi Impenetrable forest national park in Uganda
Silverbacks are very strong of which can lift over 680kg of dead weight. That’s roughly twice as much as a well trained weightlifter. In the wild, a silverback uses its immense strength to fell trees in order to reach their fruits in the forest where they live.
The silverback gorilla is the leader of the family group, and he is always watching. If he sees you getting too close to one of his gorillas, he may become protective and aggressive. So, never touch a gorilla, no matter how tempting it may be. These animals may look harmless but still they are animals though they habituated to be visited and used to human being.
When Silverbacks charge, they often beat their chests loudly and even stamp their feet in the ground thunderously in front of you. A male gorilla (silverbacks) can fight for their family even if it means to die it costing their life while defending the family; they normally use hands, teeth and legs as fighting tools.
A silverback gorilla will get angry when any other gorilla, predators, or humans try to tamper with its family. The Silverback is a Caretaker of their families; silverback gorillas will stop at nothing to keep their loved ones safe. Establishing direct eye contact with gorillas can also elicit anger in them.
Gorillas are the largest living primates, reaching between 1.3meters in female and 1.8 meters high in male, weights between 100kg females and 270kg males, and arm spans up to 2.6 meters, depending on species and sex. They tend to live in troops, with the leader being called a silverback, and the IQ of a male gorillas, the silverback as been measured to be around 70 to 90 on the human scale.
The silverback fears, according to the researchers say that gorillas, including the vaunted silverback, crap on the ground and run away when they encounter a leopard. That seems to indicate fear. They also fear humans. And they fear both with good reason as humans and leopards can and do kill them.
Gorillas are non-territorial and live in groups called troops that generally consist of 1 to 4 adult males (called silverbacks), some juvenile males (called black backs), several adult females and young.
The silverback communicates by use all senses in their communication with nonspecific’s – not only seeing and hearing but also smelling and touching. The silverback possesses a characteristic smell. During a dangerous situation, they additionally emit a very specific scent which can be smelled many metres away.
For the infants as a close relationship with their father is vital. He protects the infants and his care increases their chances of survival if their mother dies or if she leaves the group. In such a case the silverback male is usually the only one who looks after them intensively. He even allows them to sleep in his nest.
Silverback gorillas are older male lowland gorillas that have developed silver hairs on their skin. They are often the leaders of their troop. They live as long as any other western lowland gorilla, between 30 and 40 years in the wild or 50 years in captivity
