The Titus gorilla group is the original family named after the Silver back Titus which was born during the days of Dian Fossey’ research at Karisoke which was the gorilla group Dian Fossey was studying. Titus the your gorilla lost his family to poachers including his father, uncle and brother and his mother and sinter joined other families leaving Titus to be raised by an unrelated male gorillas. According to Dian Fossey Titus the infant seemed “underdeveloped and spindly” and had difficulty breathing, but Titus overcame these difficulties.

Years later, the group was joined by 5 female gorillas and the leader at the time; Beetsme, drove away all the other males leaving only Titus, the favored one by the dominant female, Papoose. In 1991, at age 17, Titus surprised researchers when he deposed the dominant silver back, Beetsme, in a bloodless coup becoming the family head.
Following the 1991 genocide, most of the researchers left Rwanda and the group was abandoned hence less literature about it.

Titus led the group until 2007 when he started experiencing confrontations from one of his sons; Kuryama who later broke away to form his own group. The period that followed gave Titus a bloody nose as most of the members kept on joining other groups. More anxiety came in with the return of the ‘prodigal son’, Kuryama in 2009.

The ‘gorilla king’ as was commonly known, Titus was found dead in his night nest surrounded by his family members and the doctors declared that he died of a natural causes. At the age of 35 years, Titus was believed to be the most successful gorilla in Rwanda and had more off springs than any other gorilla.
The group as earlier intended, remained entirely dedicated for research but has of recent been allowed for tracking when the permits are overbooked. This gorilla group lives in between Karisimbi and Visoke volcanoes.