| abstract
| - Mussolini(VBF038) was born on March 28, 2004 to the Balrog Mob. Her mother was Viv'e and her father was a rover named Stinker. Mussolini had two other litter-mates, one brother named Castro(VBM036) and one sister named Gadafi(VBF037). The Balrog had been named after their first long-term dominate male, Balrog. These three pups were the first surviving pups born in the Balrog in almost a year. Their mother was not the dominant female but their aunt Velvet, who could have killed the pups. However she had not pups at the time and none of the other adult adult females were pregnant at the time either. None of the Balrog females had managed to raise a sucessful litter during the past year so Mussolini and her two litter-mates were accepted by dominate female Velvet. All three pups survived the first two months of their lives. When Mussolini was only two months old her aunt Velvet gave birth to a litter of four pups on May 12, 2004. However, two of the pups did not survive and were predated within a month of their birth. Mussolini was nine months old when her aunt Velvet evicted her mother Viv'e and dissapeared afterwards. Mussolini became the oldest subordinate female under her aunt. Shortly afterwards, Velvet gave birth to a litter of three pups on November 17, 2004. On Febuary 1, 2005 Velvet gave birth again. However, none of the pups survived and Velved died the next day. After Velvet's death, Mussolini was the oldest female at eleven months old. Although she was pregnant and older, her cousin Babbelas at nine months old was a well matched rival. On February 20, 2005, Mussolini gave birth to her first litter that consisted of four pups named Bradley, Audrey, Numpty and Graham. After their birth, nine month old Babbelas claimed dominance over eleven month old Mussolini. Shortly after Babbelas became the dominate female, the long-term dominant male Balrog died of old age. His son Mbabane took up temporary dominance of the group. That same month, Babbelas and her litter-mate siter Babbalina gave birth to a mixed litter of six pups. Tragically, two weeks after thier birth, a wild group attacked the babysitting burrow and killed four of the pups. The Balrog retreated from their rivals an carried all six pups with them including four dead pups. Only two males named Basta and Dirty Sanzhez survived. Then, two months later, dominate male Mbabane left the Balrog to rove along with all the adult males, maybe including Mussolini's brother Gadafi. His spot was quickly filled by the roving male Stinker. He became the dominate male of the Balrog for a breif five days before four wild males joined the mob and kicked him out. Wild male Chino took over as the Balrog dominant male. Mussolinie most likely mated with one of these males. On September 18, 2005, Mussolini gave birth to Acer, Afrika Bambarta, Widow Twanky and Willow. One month later, Babbelas gave birth to one pup but it did not survive. In December 2005, the three subordinate wild immigrant males died of suspected TB. Chino was the only unrelated male left in the Balrog. Then, in February 2006, Babbelas died of suspected TB. Again, Mussolini fought for dominance against her younger cousins Babbalina and Priscilla. Despite being the oldest female in the group, it was Priscilla who became the dominant female. Priscilla became Chino's new mate and Mussolini continued to serve as a subordinate female. Then, on April 23, 2006, the three oldest Balrog females, Mussolini, Babbalina and Priscilla, all gave birth to a mixed litter of pups. However, only Priscilla's two pups survived. In August, dominant male Chino died of suspected TB as well as subordinate female Babbalina. However, the next day, seven Vivian males joined the Balrog. The three leading male competed for dominance and the youngest fo the three named Boba won dominance over the other immigrant males. Five days later, the other six subordinate males rejoined the Vivian after a group encounter. However, on August 18, 2006, Priscilla was killed by a bout of TB. This time, there were no other challengers to Mussolini. Mussolini easily established dominance over her subordinates and finally claimed the position as the Balrog dominant female.
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