Gorilla Enrichment

Z

zooman

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hi people,

I would enjoy reading, about the many and varied tools of Gorilla enrichment. Also mixed gorilla exhibits.With pictures would be ideal.

As soon as my partner returns from os l will be able to add my own pictures. He has the lap top that is connected to our scanner.

I also have a very comprehensive catalogue of gorilla enclosure pictures. Dating back to the early 80's. How far we have come! Good old Aspinalls never had to change a thing!

Stuart
 
Thanks Sun, l had not seen this thread.

have a great day.

Stuart
 
Two photos from Port Lympne (they are in the Gallery too).
The stick feeder is shaped like a large mushroom, with holes at the top into which the gorillas can push sticks. I guess there is a sweet solution inside - it's certainly popular.

[photo=8307;543;PortLympne002a011.jpg]Gorilla enrichment[/photo]

Last summer I watched Djala, the wild-caught group leader, getting rather tense when the scatter feed was watched by a large and noisy group of children. Afterwards he went and sat among the trees in the far part of the enclosure and ate the nettles that grow there - he treated them very carefully and delicately to avoid getting stung (details in photo caption).

[photo=8308;543;PortLympne002a422a.jpg]Djala likes nettles[/photo]

Alan
 
HI Alan, grteat pics. The one of Djala l think is particually good. I have seen him very carefully collect some of the grasses from next the big log at the rear of the outdoor exhibit. He collected a large handfull over about 15 minutes.Not eating any of them.
Then took it all inside to eat.

You dont happen to know exactly what type of neetles they are? Maybe not your field. Although l think zooplantman might have an idea.

Thanks for posting the pics here Alan. I look forward to adding my own collection as soon as l can.

Stuart
 
zooman said:
You dont happen to know exactly what type of neetles they are? Maybe not your field. Although l think zooplantman might have an idea.
Stuart
Click to expand...

As far as I know they are just ordinary stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) - I hope to get down to PL within the next few weeks, so I'll just hop over the wall and check - or perhaps not :D
I don't suppose Djala does this often, otherwise there would be no nettles left; but you can see from the look of concentration on his face how much effort he had to make, so he was obviously rewarded by the enjoyment of eating them. A good example of the value of a large and well planted enclosure.
I was reminded of this event by one of the recent TV programmes from Colchester Zoo, where they attached a plastic crate of cut nettles to the outside of the chimp's cage, so they had to reach through the wire with their fingers to fish the nettles out. They enjoyed their nettles as much as Djala did (but rather more noisily).

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
Last summer I watched Djala, the wild-caught group leader, getting rather tense when the scatter feed was watched by a large and noisy group of children.
Click to expand...

Djala hates children... it stems from his capture in Africa as a baby- I think he was mistreated/taunted by village children and was rescued from a cooking pot- the memories have evidently never left him. Several times I've seen him run and hit the glass in response to noisy children.

I've seen him eating nettles in the same way- I suspect it forms a small part of his daily menu during the summer. I think Mountain Gorillas eat large quantities of some sort of African stinging nettle too don't they?
 
Gorilla feed time at Howletts.

Has anyone else watched the roof-feeding at the Howletts gorilla cages and heard the Gorillas' 'chorus' in anticipation beforehand?

I've never heard Gorillas make this noise in any other zoo, though Belle Benchley's old 1930's book about the San Diego 'mountain' gorillas mentions them making an identical noise when they were let indoors for their food.

At Howletts I've only seen it happen with the oldest females, Juju, Baby Doll and Mouila, but maybe other groups do it too. A few minutes before the keepers came into sight, they started to slowly climb up into the top of the cage, at the same time making a continuous low whining/humming noise ...mmmmmmmmmm.... up and down the scale. It intensified as they expectantly waited for the food to arrive, then stopped immediately they received it. A keeper told me that only some of them do it and its 'inherited' between relatives. I've never heard a gorillas 'chorus' like this anywhere else.
 
Pertinax said:
A few minutes before the keepers came into sight, they started to slowly climb up into the top of the cage, at the same time making a continuous low whining/humming noise ...mmmmmmmmmm.... up and down the scale. It intensified as they expectantly waited for the food to arrive, then stopped immediately they received it.
Click to expand...

Who knows? Maybe some populations of wild gorillas announce food discovery to the group this way? This reminds of chimpanzee noise in anticipation of food.

Some zoo apes hint at interesting cultural behaviours of wild apes.

I read somewhere that some wild-born chimps and orangutans in zoos used mouth to mouth artifical respiration to make newborns start breathing. I wonder if more is known about it?
 
wow

Jurek7 said:
I read somewhere that some wild-born chimps and orangutans in zoos used mouth to mouth artifical respiration to make newborns start breathing. I wonder if more is known about it?
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Wow l love this forum. I have never heard of this. Look forward to reading more about this. Wonder if captive bread chimps or orangutans have done this. Indicating a instinctive behaviour!!

My sister with children tells me that breats feeding does not come naturally to many women and there babies. I would have thought breast feeding was instinctive amongst humans and probably primates.The more l think about the more l think its learnt. Interesting how far a joey [baby kangaroo]has to travel to find milk from its mother and thats definatley instinctive!

I have seen chimps at Port Lympe back in the 80's using human hand gestures to indicate. That there is "food down here come and get it".
In the tall cylinder enclosure close to where the new, and brillant colobus monkey enclosure.
 
Jurek7 said:
Who knows? Maybe some populations of wild gorillas announce food discovery to the group this way? This reminds of chimpanzee noise in anticipation of food.

Some zoo apes hint at interesting cultural behaviours of wild apes.

I read somewhere that some wild-born chimps and orangutans in zoos used mouth to mouth artifical respiration to make newborns start breathing. I wonder if more is known about it?
Click to expand...

1. That is what I thought it relates to, too... The interesting thing is I've been watching Gorillas in zoos for decades but the first time I ever heard (or noticed?) this noise was at Howletts on my last visit. But with chimps their hoots of excitement when food arrives is a lot more obvious.

2. I have heard the captive birth of an orangutan described this way- the mother blowing in the infants mouth to start breathing- or are they just cleaning/licking birth membranes away from the face?

3. Regarding breast feeding- there's been a great deal written about how younger female apes learn motherhood skills by watching experienced females, or playing with/carrying other females' young etc. The strange thing is there are no set rules here- females with perfect social backgrounds will sometimes still reject babies(as still happens at Howletts sometimes,despite near perfect social groupings) yet Bristol's 23 year old female Romina was a perfect first time mother despite never having seen a baby(or even another female) in her life before her own was born.

Some females do show strong maternal instinct yet won't let the baby suckle- that does indicate to me that breastfeeding needs to be learnt. Neither of the two original females at Jersey zoo would rear their first three infants (Nandi in particular clearly wanted to keep her babies but wouldn't let them suck) but both of them became very capable mothers with their later offspring.
 
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windchimes & goats...

Paignton Zoo has a bachelor group of Gorillas. They have wind chimes hanging on the outdoor island as enrichment- I don't know if the gorillas appreciate them or not...:). They've also given them Rugby balls and footballs to play with at various times too.

Gorilla Haven's 'Oliver' has two small goats as company as no other gorillas are currently available. That's certainly an innovative move and I haven't heard of this mixing before.

The best enrichment of all seems to be simply a large social group with infants and juveniles, they seem to stimulate activity among the older animals too who seem to have less time to sit around looking bored. (Mind you, how bored are they really, or are they just resting?)
 
regarding mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, this works in humans because the passages from mouth and nose are conjoined due to the descended larynx, with both leading to the lungs (and stomach); but in most mammals the passages are quite distinct, with the oesophagus from the mouth to stomach and windpipe from nose to lungs (ie you cannot successfully give mouth-to-mouth to a dog because all you'll be doing is blowing air into its stomach!). In human babies the passages are also distinct because the larynx doesn't descend till around 18 months of age, and hence artificial resuscitation in babies has to be done mouth-to-nose (the separate passages is also the reason babies can both suckle and breathe at the same time, something adult humans cannot do). Great apes have separate windpipe and oesophagus, like most mammals. The point of all this is that an ape giving mouth-to-mouth to a newborn ape would serve no purpose at all in terms of enabling it to breathe.
 
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Well done childonaia, very interesting to read. Appreciate you sharing this. I had no idea.

All thr best

Stuart Webster
 
Chlidonias said:
The point of all this is that an ape giving mouth-to-mouth to a newborn ape would serve no purpose at all in terms of enabling it to breathe.
Click to expand...

I imagine that its been interpreted wrongly then- a mother ape mouth to mouth with a newborn is clearing away the birth membranes- as I suggested before.;)
 
Pertinax said:
I imagine that its been interpreted wrongly then- a mother ape mouth to mouth with a newborn is clearing away the birth membranes- as I suggested before.;)
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I was going to quote your sentence at the start of the post but I forgot, sorry :)
 
zooman said:
HI Alan, grteat pics. The one of Djala l think is particually good. I have seen him very carefully collect some of the grasses from next the big log at the rear of the outdoor exhibit. He collected a large handfull over about 15 minutes.Not eating any of them.
Then took it all inside to eat.
.....
Click to expand...

I think great apes including gorillas really relish any opportunity to engage in natural foraging behaviour in captivity. Its quite interesting that he was concentrating and carefully plucking away for some time.

I remembered reading about an orangutan who was offered a banana tree and it carefully stripped off the tender layers and spent a long time carefully eating it all and then used up the remainder to build a nest. It seemed to be maximizing the amount of time that could be spent on using the banana tree.

There also used to be a youtube orangutan who was peeling a grape just by using its mouth. Again it seemed to be drawing out as much fun as it could from that single grape.
 
Washington DC Zoo. They put out a brown papper bag full of popcorn. One of the younger gorillas collected this and spent a long time keeping it away from the other gorillas. Very carefull not to spill any of the bags contents he was runing all over the enclosure.

A great example of creative enrichment.

Stuart R Webster
 
I wonder if sight screens should be used much more in gorilla exhibits? I am thinking about many sacks or green plastic sheets hanging in the exhibit, subdividing it into many small compartments.

Wild gorillas spend most of the time in tangles of very dense secondary vegetation, which is very claustrophobic for man. This frustrated many gorilla watchers who stood few meters from a gorilla but could not see a thing, or maybe a patch of fur and moving leaves. This is less well known, because it is simply impossible to photograph or film them when lots of sticks and leaves come in the way. So images of wild gorillas come from these relatively rare moments when they cross more open forest or go out on a clearing.

The result is that wild gorilla group cannot see each other most of the time. Group members can easily avoid each other almost all the time, yet stay in a group. I think this has a very peace-making influence on the group dynamics. Mimicking this could help solving problems with incompatible individuals in zoos.
 
Jurek7 said:
I wonder if sight screens should be used much more in gorilla exhibits? I am thinking about many sacks or green plastic sheets hanging in the exhibit, subdividing it into many small compartments.

Wild gorillas spend most of the time in tangles of very dense secondary vegetation, which is very claustrophobic for man. This frustrated many gorilla watchers who stood few meters from a gorilla but could not see a thing, or maybe a patch of fur and moving leaves. This is less well known, because it is simply impossible to photograph or film them when lots of sticks and leaves come in the way. So images of wild gorillas come from these relatively rare moments when they cross more open forest or go out on a clearing.

The result is that wild gorilla group cannot see each other most of the time. Group members can easily avoid each other almost all the time, yet stay in a group. I think this has a very peace-making influence on the group dynamics. Mimicking this could help solving problems with incompatible individuals in zoos.
Click to expand...
In adequately sized and designed enclosures it is not difficult for troop members to be out of sight of each other. The problem comes when enclosures aren't large enough or are simply empty oval shapes with a climbing structure in the center.
 
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