Humba is one of the calmest Silverbacks in the Mikeno Sector – and also one of the biggest, especially compared to his brothers. He is quite serious too and does not really like to play around. Sometimes some of the females in his family try and joke around, but he is not interested and prefers to remain in quiet contemplation of those he strives to protect and nurture.

Humba was born into the Rugendo family with his brothers Mapuwa, Senkwekwe and Ruzirabwoba, but he left in 1998 to form his own group, with some gorillas he took from Rugendo, his father. Senkwekwe as you know was tragically murdered in July 2007, but Mapuwa and Ruzirabwoba, who both left the family nest first, are still thriving in Virunga.

Overlooking his kingdom

Humba may be calm – and indeed Rangers like him for it as you rarely have an unpleasant experience when you visit him - but he does have interactions with other Silverbacks, if necessary. In general, if he hears another family approach, he always prefers to move his family away, as opposed to confronting another Silverback and engaging in a fight which can be a painful experience for the loser. In 2007 Humba had an interaction with Munyaga and Kabirizi, so Humba was moving frequently and covering large distances which made the job of counting the individuals in his family for the gorilla census of that year very difficult.

Humba relaxing…