
24/08/2025
When dispersing between groups, female mountain gorillas may be primarily looking for other females they grew up with. Female gorillas can move between multiple social groups during their lifetime, but how do they choose where to go? A study analysing the movement of 56 females for over two decades shows that this decision is strongly influenced by social history and that female-female relationships have the strongest impact on dispersal patterns. Female mountain gorillas avoided groups containing males they grew up with, reducing inbreeding risk, but consistently preferred groups with females they had lived with previously. Even after years apart, female relationships continued to shape dispersal, challenging long-standing assumptions that dispersal is driven solely by mating opportunities. These findings reveal the deeply social nature of dispersal, offering insight into the evolution of flexible, socially connected societies – like our own.
Read the BBC article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80d7l94yvro
Read the full paper in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.0223