Titus, the king of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, died Sept. 14.

Des Moines, Iowa – September 24, 2009 – Titus, the king of mountain gorillas at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, mostly likely died as a result of infection from a wound suffered during an attack from a competing silverback male.

Dr. Jan Ramer, regional veterinary manager with the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project based in Musanze, Rwanda, made the determination following a necropsy shortly after his death on Sept.14.

Dr. Ramer told Great Ape Trust Communications Director Al Setka on Wednesday, Sept. 22, during a visit to MGVP that Titus’ body was carried down the mountain on a litter and the necropsy was performed at MGVP on a large wooden table in a laboratory used to test field samples. Setka and Dr. Benjamin B. Beck, director of conservation for Great Ape Trust and U.S. director of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program in Rwanda's Western Province, are in Rwanda attending to business associated with the conservation and economic development program.

The study showed the 35-year-old Titus had a severe bite wound that broke a bone in his right arm and resulted in a systemic infection that appears to have been the cause of his death. The necropsy also revealed Titus had very little body fat and that his health had been in decline for some time.

Titus lost his position as the dominant silverback when his group split several times during the past few months. He was left only with Tuck, an older female, and her son.

"The story of Titus' life is uplifting but in his death we see the success of conservation of mountain gorillas because he died the natural death in his mountain homeland befitting a mighty silverback rather than the humiliation of a death at human hands,” Beck said.

Following a private memorial service in Volcanoes National Park, Titus was buried next to scientist and conservationist Dian Fossey near her original field camp, which was the start in 1967 of what is today the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence.  When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.

Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).