BEN| A bold headed silverback gorilla in Rwanda. 

Meet the famous bold headed Ben also known as Big Ben, a 19years old silverback in the Sabinyo gorilla family in Rwanda’s Volcanoes national park.

Big ben| The famous bold headed silverback

Baldness is fairly unique and common in humans. Other than humans, only three other mammals are known to experience pattern baldness like we do: the stump-tailed macaque, a primate that lives in Asia, and two dog species, the dachshund and the greyhound.

One reason baldness may be so rare aside from humans is that many animals rely on their hair and fur for survival, either to keep them warm or to offer some camouflage in the wild.

For mountain gorillas, the thick hair on their body is specifically to keep them warm since they survive in cold weather high in the mountain of the Virunga massive and Bwindi impenetrable forest. However, Ben is defying the odds and slowly loosing most of his hair on the head leaving a bold patch running from the face to the back of his head.

Gorilla Doctors have done several checks to ascertain the cause of Ben’s hair loss but there is no clear reason why and all seems to me fine as he also seems not to be bothered.

“He’s had that since he was really young”, says Edward Bahazi a Volcanoes national park guide.

Why Ben has a bold head?

While baldness may not be very common in mammals, its known that animals do sometimes lose some of their hair for a variety of reasons besides genetics. Common causes include mange, parasitic mites and fungal infections like ringworm.

Anything that causes inflammation or infection that damages or destroys the hair follicles can also lead to hair loss. Luckily enough, all research done prove Ben to be free from all these causes.

It’s believed Ben might be experiencing alopecia, a condition causing hair loss that also affects humans.

Alopecia in primates isn’t well understood, but it generally is thought to result from stress, although it may be an autoimmune condition in some cases.

In humans, alopecia areata is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks hair follicles, which results in hair loss. It can affect any part of the body, but it most often causes hair on the head and face to fall out.

People with alopecia areata usually experience patchy hair loss on their scalp or body. In some cases, people lose all the hair on their head, or nearly all their hair, a condition called alopecia totalis.

Bold headed Ben grooming a gorilla baby

Ben is the 2nd in command and loved by most of the group and being a younger silverback chances are he might take over. Ben is often seen grooming young gorillas and that’s how he builds a lifetime trust from the family members.

Succession for this group has been peaceful, let’s wait and see how it unfolds when his turn comes after Guhonda.

Guhonda the largest gorilla in Rwanda with his Sabinyo family.

Sabinyo| the best family to trek.

Guhonda is every inch a megastar in the Sabinyo family. Born in 1971, five years after primatologist Dian Fossey commenced her famous research project in these forests, he’s Rwanda’s oldest and largest silverback.

This makes the Sabyinyo family the Kardashians of the park and the best for an amazing gorilla trek. All those photos you’ve seen of Rwandan gorillas on social media, chances are most of them are Sabyinyos.

Their territory, in the foothills of Mount Sabyinyo, is relatively easy to reach on foot, so they receive daily visits from tourists.