Dudley Zoological Gardens London zoo chimps at Dudley, any info please.

G

GorillaFollower

Well-Known Member
I was wondering if anyone knows of the chimp group/s at Dudley as thinking of taking a trip there? I have not seen the London Zoo chimps for quite some time apart from Koko and poor Johnnie. I believe that they went up to Dudley, is this right? Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers!:)
 
London Chimps-females only- did indeed go to Dudley and are still there. Since Dudley's own original male Pepe, who was added to the group, died, there has been no male with them longterm. A rather odd situation.
 
Hey Pertinax,

Good to hear from you, I have not had much of a chance to go on ZooChat recently so nice to hear from you. Thanks for the info, yes a bit of weird situation indeed. Not sure who is still alive, I remember Barbie, Mandy, Malaika well.

How are things down at Howletts? Has Bitanu taken to the new members of the group?

Hope things are well with you
 
GorillaFollower said:
Hey Pertinax,

Thanks for the info, yes a bit of weird situation indeed. Not sure who is still alive, I remember Barbie, Mandy, Malaika well.
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I don't know the names of those chimps, but there are still six or seven of them I believe. The Dudley male Pepe never fathered any babies with them before he died, though he was the father of Whipsnade's old female Koko. The ex London females have been without a male ever since he died, I don't know why...

No recent news from Howletts- except that Kijo died in December.:(
 
Thanks for that, I didn't know Koko's father was Pepe from Dudley, is Koko from that zoo, or was she born elsewhere and Pepe moved to Dudley at some point?

Very sad new about Kijo, he really was the most beautiful gorilla. I remember him first from his days round by the garden enclosures.There was memory of a time when he was being chased madly by about 5 adult females and he was indeed scared!! He had the most wonderful eyes, truly beautiful. That is a shame and with Bobby, two really wonderful gorillas, a very sad month, December.

I will try and head to either Dudley or Antwerp in a couple of weeks, depending on the old finances. Do you know the chimps/gorillas at Antwerp? I haven't been there for about 2 years, I first went to see Jamie the hand reared 3 year old male chimp from Dublin when he went there to join the group there about 15 years ago.

How time flies!
 
GorillaFollower said:
is Koko from that zoo, or was she born elsewhere and Pepe moved to Dudley at some point?

Very sad new about Kijo, he really was the most beautiful gorilla.
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Koko was born at Dudley and both her parents(Pepe x Cherry) lived there. When the London group went to Dudley, ZSL received the two old females Cherry & Bella from Dudley to join Jonny & Koko, while Pepe stayed at Dudley and joined the London females. So Cherry and her daughter Koko were reunited for a few years at London.

Kijo was my all time favourite Howletts gorilla... there is thread about him on which I recorded a brief history. I was very surprised to discover he had died- he looked fit and well last October.
 
Maybe they're not breeding them because they're not a pure sub-species?
Aren't a lot of zoos starting to do this these days?
 
ashley-h said:
Maybe they're not breeding them because they're not a pure sub-species?
Aren't a lot of zoos starting to do this these days?
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I think that maybe the reason, but I'd prefer to see some males added to make a more natural group. They could vasectomise the males or put the females on the pill if they don't want babies. Females on their own is a rather an unnatural arrangement
 
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