Pili-Pili is one of the four sons of Rugabo. His name means “Pepper” - he was given this because as an infant he was quite feisty. We started monitoring him in 1997, when he was part of the Lulengo Family, which consisted of 12 individuals at the time. Lulengo, Mareru, Nvyekure and Pili-Pili are brothers.

1998 was a tumultuous year. On 15 January Pili-Pili had an interaction with Lulengo and split with five individuals to form his own family - these were three adult females: Bagenzi, Amahoro and Mahane and two juveniles: Birori and Gasigwa. Shortly after an adult female, Mwirakazi, joined Pili-Pili after he had an interaction with Ruzirabwoba.

Then a few months later the four adult females disappeared from his family, and Birori and Gasigwa were killed by armed men.

From 1999 to 2000 we didn’t see Pili-Pili (the civil war was going on) but during this time he managed to gain another family. We do not know how or from whom.

In 2002 Mapuwa fought with Pili-Pili. Mapuwa took three individuals, and forced Pili-Pili to leave the family unit and become solitary.

From 2002 until 2007 Pili-Pili roamed solitary. He tried to win over females to form a family, but was unsuccessful. During this time we monitored Pili-Pili and the other solitaries. We need to do this so that the day there is an interaction and individuals are taken by another Silverback, we know which Silverback it is!

In February 2007 Pili-Pili had an interaction with Mapuwa that lasted three days. Pili-Pili finally got a family again: two adult females Mafaze and Maganya, and a sub-adult female Bavanyuma. Then, in August, Pili-Pili and Lulengo had a fierce interaction. Lulengo won and took Pili-Pili’s family.

When the rangers returned from to the park after the fighting in 2008 they found that two Silverbacks, one blackback and one female had joined the Rugendo Family. One of the silverbacks was Pili-Pili. In 2009 he ran away from the family with a juvenile called Bavukahe.