The rarity of such infanticide mainly reflects a low mortality rate of dominant males in one-male groups, and it does not dispel previous observations that infanticide occurs during group disintegrations. Using more than 40 years of data from up to 70% of the entire population, we found that only 1.7% of the infants that were born in the study had died from infanticide during group disintegrations. Here we measure the impact of infanticide on the reproductive success of female mountain gorillas, and we examine whether their dispersal patterns reflect a strategy to avoid infanticide. Previous studies have suggested that female mountain gorillas benefit from residing in multimale groups because infanticide occurs when one-male groups disintegrate after the dominant male dies. The smaller silverback gets trained by the father on the upcoming duties.Infanticide can be a major influence upon the social structure of species in which females maintain long-term associations with males. The capacity of protecting his family and appetite reduces as he gets older. Subordinate silverbacks share the job of protecting and directing the group, and while dominant males generally sire the majority of offspring, some subordinate males also reproduce. Because males don’t transfer between groups (unlike females), subordinate silverbacks in a group were born into that group and at some point decide if they will stay and try to inherit dominance or if they will strike out on their own and try to attract females away from other groups to form their own family. However, around 40% of mountain gorilla groups contain multiple adult silverbacks! In these groups, there is a hierarchy among the males, and there is still a single male who is dominant over all other individuals (called the dominant or alpha silverback). This silverback will act as the dominant individual in the group and make decisions about where to travel and when to stop, as well as protect the females and young gorillas.
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