Cause of death for Titus, King of Mountain Gorillas
Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 2:54am

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 September 14.
Dr. Ramer told me yesterday 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.

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 reviewed Titus had very little body fat and that his health had been in decline for some time.

Titus lost his position as the dominant siliverback 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 nighty silverback rather than the humiliation of a death at human hands, said Dr. Benjamin Beck, director of conservation for Great Ape Trust and U.S. director of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program in Rwanda's Western Province.

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.