The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Josh Greenman <josh.greenman AT gmail.com>]

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/titus-the-gorilla-king-is-dead-1789444.html

Titus the gorilla king is dead

Daniel Howden in Rwanda mourns David Attenborough's silverback, who
changed the way the world sees great apes

Friday, 18 September 2009

Before the king's burial, his subjects take their time to clean his
body. It is not a ritual that should be lightly interfered with and,
as the mighty, fallen monarch receives his last ablutions, medical
personnel are keeping a respectuful distance.

The king was a gorilla called Titus. Although he had been deposed by
his son, death seemed to have restored him to his full glory. The
mighty silverback was once the dominant head of a tight-knit group of
the great apes whose kingdom was on the eastern slopes of the Visoke
volcano in Rwanda's border lands, and a vital figure in the battle for
the survival of the species.

Rosette Rugamba, head of tourism and national parks in Rwanda, said:
"The other gorillas are mourning. They are cleaning him. You have to
be very careful. You can't just remove the body." The Rwanda national
parks office said the 450lb, 35-year-old gorilla had "succumbed to old
age" after a short illness.

Officials described Titus as "possibly the most remarkable gorilla
ever known", referring to his rise to dominance of he largest known
group of gorillas in the world. And Sir David Attenborough, the
naturalist who was famously upstaged by Titus when the gorilla, then
five, climbed on his back, said yesterday he was sorry that Titus
should have died when he was still "quite young". He added: "He was a
charming little animal. Certainly, it was very memorable and I haven't
been allowed to forget it."

Titus was given his name by the great US primatologist Dian Fossey,
who came to the Mikeno chain of volcanoes in the 1970s to conduct a
census of the great apes. Over two decades in Rwanda, she followed a
group led by a male she had named "Uncle Bert" after a relative.

In 1974, Fossey gave one of Bert's offspring the name Titus. Ten years
later, the primatologist was murdered in her Rwandan forest cabin,
possibly because of her work opposing the exploitation of the animals.
She was buried at the Karisoke Research Centre, which continues that
work. In the years that followed, Titus became possibly the most
photographed and studied gorilla in history.

One of the first of a generation of apes whose lives have been
documented since birth, Titus left a remarkable record that has
demonstrated how far human understanding of gorilla behaviour has
come. For Titus, fame first came with his part in the film of Fossey's
life, Gorillas In The Mist and latterly as the star of a recent BBC
documentary The Gorilla King.

Ian Redmond, who worked with Fossey and later with Sigourney Weaver,
who played her in the biopic, remembered his first meeting with the
ape when the latter film was released last year. "Titus is special to
me because he's the first gorilla I ever saw," he said. "As I
approached this thicket, I saw this little black furry thing which was
Titus being chased by his brother. It was like joining a family picnic
- it was quite something."

But upon his birth in August 1974, Titus was initially thought to be
an underdeveloped baby with little chance of survival. The environment
gave little cause for optimism. His uncle Digit, who was Fossey's
favourite gorilla, was killed by poachers in 1978, and had his head
and hands hacked off; gorillas were often killed for the ornamental
value of their skulls and paws. The same poachers later returned to
slaughter Titus's father, Bert.

When Titus met Attenborough at the age of five, he was effectively an
orphan, in a group with no silverback. But he survived. And later,
after several years in a bachelor group, Titus eventually ascended to
lead a mixed clan known as the "Beetsme" group, named for a former
dominant male. Titus is thought to have sired more offspring than any
other gorilla recorded. He is also credited with guiding his group out
of danger during Rwanda's 1993 genocide.

Titus led the Beetsme group for 15 years. But gradually – in a tale of
filial ambition worthy of Shakespeare – Titus's son, Kuryama, usurped
him at the head of the group. Eventually, Titus accepted it. But he
retained his affectionate entourage, who continued to groom him as he
followed in his son's wake.

Now tourists will pay $500 for permits to see the great apes,
Kuryama's leadership is likely to be a different era. Before Fossey's
arrival in the region, though, the gorilla population was on course
for extinction. The population of mountain gorillas is still
endangered, but it has now stabilised. It was the battle for their
survival that may have eventually claimed Fossey's life. Her murder
has never been solved, but nor has her legacy expired, a legacy Titus
lived out, and which, it is hoped, his tenuously surviving clan will
continue to prove.

Although officials have refused to confirm the arrangements, it is
likely that Titus will also be laid to rest at Karisoke, near the
woman who gave him his name.