The Munyaga family’s history is a study in the vulnerability of a gorilla group that lacks a stable dominant male. The original silverback Munyaga spent years as a lone male before February 1998, when he encountered the Buhanga group — a family without a dominant silverback — and established himself as its leader. For a period, this arrangement held. But the neighbouring Kabirizi family repeatedly interacted with the Munyaga group, and over time Kabirizi’s dominant silverback drew away the Munyaga group’s females, one by one. Eventually Munyaga had lost all his females. The silverback himself then disappeared from monitoring records for two years, between 2007 and 2008.
The Silverback Mawazo
Following Munyaga’s disappearance, the silverback Mawazo took over leadership of the group and has led it since. Mawazo is the dominant male of what is currently the smallest habituated group in the Mikeno sector of Virunga National Park. The family ranges in the Bukima area — the Bukima patrol post is one of the most active ranger stations in the park and the family is closely monitored. In February 2026, a female named Bilali gave birth to a female infant, bringing the family’s confirmed membership to 14 individuals.
Family Composition
Despite being the smallest group in the Mikeno sector, the Munyaga family has an unusually high number of silverbacks relative to its size — four silverbacks within a 14-member group. A group with four silverbacks and only three adult females represents a demographic profile that creates internal competition for rank and future breeding opportunities. The International Gorilla Conservation Programme monitors the family’s dynamics closely, as high silverback-to-female ratios can be a driver of group instability. The infants born into the group in recent years represent the reproductive investment of those few adult females, each of whom is particularly important to the family’s long-term viability.
The Kabirizi Rivalry
The history of the Munyaga family is inseparable from the Kabirizi family that ranges the same sector. The repeated interactions between the groups — which ended in Munyaga losing all his females to Kabirizi’s dominant male — is a documented example of how male competition between silverbacks plays out not in single confrontations but in sustained, incremental shifts of allegiance among adult females. The Munyaga group today is the surviving remnant of those interactions, rebuilt from a low point by Mawazo into a small but stable family.
Current status: Verify Virunga NP access before planning. The Bukima area has ranger infrastructure and is actively monitored.