Has anyone visited and seen the red handed tamarins and new spider monkeys yet ? If so , where are they housed ? And have you captured any pictures to share by any chance ? Thanks in advance !
Mogo Wildlife Park Mogo Zoo News
- Thread starter Jet
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According to the map, the spider monkeys are housed in an exhibit opposite the entrance. You can see some glimpses of the exhibit in this video:
5K views · 276 reactions | Have you spotted one of our newest additions? Spider Monkeys, Mono and Sumatra recently arrived at Mogo Wildlife Park and are busy settling into their new enclosure. Have you had a chance to check them out yet? #spidermonkey #monkey #monkeys #spidermonkeys #prehensiletail #mogowildlifepark | Mogo Wildlife Park
The map symbols are are a little vague, but the tamarins are either in the adjacent exhibit or in the cluster of small monkey exhibits down from the lions.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
From the video, it looks to me like the spider monkeys are being housed in the former Ring-tailed Lemur exhibit on the way to the tigers.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
Just watched this and I would definitely recommend it. It's absolutely incredible what they did.
There were a couple of inacurracies though, such as misspelling G-Anne the gorilla's name as "Jian", showing a photograph of a lion cub when one of the keepers was talking about handraising Kinwah the tiger, and several shots implying that Chatura the Sri Lankan Leopard was there when the fires happened; but it's the media, they're always going to get something wrong!
Yeah it was an incredible doco hey. Have endless respect and admiration for all the team at Mogo who had to go through that (for those of us he knew Mogo the beautiful little village too and the people from there who make it so. It was so heartbreaking seeing what happened to it during the bushfires, was just obliterated, was awful. Driving through a year later was so hard to see, and wasnt even someone who was there as a resident and community member to go through that horror.
Was really cool seeing some of the other keepers at Mogo too (Keeper Chad had seen before in videos, but all the other keepers: Althea, Clive, Cody, Fran, Sam, Sophie and others, (some in the photo at the end of all of them recognised from old visits). They all seem like such an awesome bunch of people (and as brave as brave gets and selfless too) I hope they got awards for their bravery, as modest as they would probably try decline doing so, saying they were just looking after their animals, they deserve to so much.
Noticed that too about Chatura, as have a good memory for when felids first arrived or left or were first born at different zoos, but disgraced to admit need to brush up on gorilla knowledge, as wonderful and captivating as they are, didnt know that about G-Anne, thanks for the info (oh is she one of the ones who came to Melbourne from Jersey or somewhere in western Europe with poor Julia in the late '90s?).
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Yes, G-Anne (1979) and Julia (1982-2015) were imported from Jersey Zoo by Melbourne Zoo in 1997. After Julia was fatally injured by Otana, G-Anne transferred across to Mogo in 2016.
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& @Osedax
Oh cool, yeah it's really great to know she is still around (granted of course thankfully western lowland gorillas normally live a really good lifespan in good zoos, and have heard about G-Anne before, heck actually think probably saw her in 2014, 2015 or 2017 at Mogo if she was there then. But still working on knowing who's who with the gorillas in our region. Yeah I think with Keeper Althea pronouncing G-Anne's like that it's her accent.
A youtube link for it alternatively:
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Yeah, it's interesting that ABC just seems to have 'attempted' to spell out her name based on the pronunciation and just butchered it. The keeper seems to say it right; 'Gee - An'.
You would've seen G Ann during your 2017 visit. She's most noticeable as she's missing one hand, which stems from an injury she suffered during her time at Jersey.
I believe they were either trialling the drugs for her and Julia's sedation/transport to Australia, or possibly even during the actual preperation and she developed a bad reaction so had to have the hand removed. I remember her at Jersey prior to that, she was one of those females that has a very stately walk, she would march around the enclosure looking very dignified. In those days she was very slim too.
Poor G-Anne that's really sad that she had such a bad reaction to it and had to lose her hand (imagine the amputation saved her life though). Her and Julia really went through some tough moments in their lives (Julia's the beginning of hers coming into captivity orphaned, and the last day of hers poor thing), but glad they had some really good years, many together. It's great to see G-Anne is having a good life at Mogo just like she did at Melbourne and Jersey, albeit different challenges at times for her imagine, she's clearly a very resilient individual hey.
Were her and Julia part of Jersey's gorilla troop when that incident happened where that young boy fell into the exhibit, and the silverback leading family at the time, went over to see if he was ok and sat near him and rubbed his back until he was lifted out by the keepers? (The footage was shown in the 1993 short doco' about Mzuri's (/Ya Kwanza's) early life and move to Jersey, as a prime example story to contrast a lot of people's misconceptions about gorillas natures. Jambo shared the doco' on here few years ago).
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No, Julia and G-Anne were integrated into the troop after that incident, which was in 1986. The troop at the time consisted of silverback Jambo; his three females, N’Pongo, Nandi and Kishka; and their offspring.
Nandi was Jambo’s favourite female and was very curious about the injured boy; but Jambo shouldered her aside and put himself between the boy and the family. It was an incredible moment, but more instinctual of a silverback to protect his troop than a gesture of protecting the boy from the other gorillas as the media spun it.
The greatest danger to the boy was the adolescent male (Hobbit), who gained access to the exhibit when keepers let Jambo and his troop inside. A keeper kept him at bay brandishing a stick.
Oh right, thanks for all the details about, appreciate. Right so G-Anne & Julia arrived and joined the family later. Oh N'Pongo, recognise her name from Menagerie Manor, she'd been at Jersey quite a while by then (c.early 1960s from memory). That's really cool she was still there. Was such an examplary moment with Jambo, Kishka, Nandi and N'Pongo hey. That's interesting too about Hobbit the adolescent male (like Lord of the Rings, but not a very choice name for a gorilla imo lol, guessing its the - humanoid with lots of hair, connection that prompted his name) being kept/held at bay by the keeper with a stick for the boy's safety.
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Yes, N’Pongo and Nandi arrived as infants. The intention was to acquire a 1.1 pair for breeding, but N’Pongo was discovered to be female and Jambo was imported from Basle. Kishka arrived as an adolescent and only had time to produce two infants (one surviving) with Jambo. Another of Jambo’s daughters (Hlala Kahili) later bred with Mzuri.
N’Pongo was more humanised and would only defer to
Jambo when she was cycling. Nandi by contrast adored him - similar to Kibale/Mbeli at Taronga.
If it is Nandi there, that would mean that it would be a young Motoba on her back.
I've always wondered who the male 'Hobbit' is. It seems all of Jambo's sons are accounted for, besides one 'Kumba', who would end up at the Chessington Zoo where he would pass at a rather young age in 1995. He would've been ten years old at the time of this incident - which seems about right judging from the size of the individual in the video. Him being transitioning out of the troop at the time does make sense (ie. that was probably why he was separated indoors at the time).
I first read about the story of the 1986 incident in the book Zoo Tails: True Stories of Britain’s Zoo Animals. It referred to Hobbit as “the adolescent male from Zurich” and implied it was necessary to allow him access to the exhibit in order to secure Jambo and the troop inside (not sure if that was the case or somebody made a mistake and Hobbit ended up in the outside arena).
Edit (found some info): Hobbit was born at Stuttgart in 1979 to Banjo and Undi and transfered to Zurich at the age of seven months. In 1984 he moved to Jersey; and in 1988 he was sent to Pretoria where he died in 2009. He sired two offspring in 1989 and 1990, neither of which survived more than a week.
Correct.
In a longer video of the incident, right at the very beginning and only a few secs long you see Jambo actually pick up Motaba and run bidepedally a few steps, carrying him away from the 'danger'. Again, it proves Jambo was defending his troop, not the boy. He does briefly touch the child's back and (I think) smells him but that's curiosity. When the boy (Levan Merrit) becomes conscious and starts to cry, Jambo hurriedly moves away. Its become steeped in folklore that 'the gorilla saved the boy' but it wasn't like that at all.
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I think the idea was to start a second group with Hobbit (born Stuttgart Zoo) as the male and their homebred females. But they had not reckoned for the restricted space they had indoors and it wasn't long before they abandoned the idea and sent him away again.
During the Jambo/boy incident I always wondered exactly why he was let outside when he was- was it deliberate e.g. being too close to Jambo inside? or in the general panic was it a mistake? I think the latter probably. In his excitement at the rucus from the onlookers, he was more likely to have harmed the boy (probably by dragging him) if he had got near enough- he was getting nearer each time he ran back and forth- but the keeper(very bravely IMO) kept him at bay. Just my opinion but Hobbit was a very ugly gorilla(!)
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H. Kahili is still at Jersey, along with Bambuti/Bahasha from Melbourne and her daughter. They are a very small group at present (only 4 of them) but with the completion of much large indoor quarters I think they may add more(females).
I see Ngola (son of Jambo and N’Pongo) went to Zurich in 1984, which is the year that Hobbit came to Jersey, so it appears to have been a direct exchange with the intention of Hobbit heading up a second troop as you say. Jambo died in 1992, so had Hobbit remained on site, I’m willing to bet he would have been more successful in siring young than Mzuri ever was.
I’m not aware of the den configurations, but I know the keepers hurried to make preparations for Jambo’s troop to enter the dens during the incident. Perhaps securing the large family troop took priority over allowing the adolescent access to the exhibit. They two groups couldn’t mix and securing multiple adults and young may have been the trade off.
They were added to the Jersey group as both became available to make it bigger but both came from desocialised backgrounds. Julia had been raised with chimpanzees in Africa, GAnne was handraised at her natal zoo Oklahoma in the USA and exchanged for a Jambo/Npongo son, Tatu. I think Jambo actually tolerated them okay though always as outsiders whom he didn't mate with. But Mzuri/Ya Kwanza rejected them more strongly- he broke Julia's leg at one stage I seem to remember. Hence the transfer. But of course because of their backgrounds, they had similar problems in Australia.
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