ZSL London Zoo New male gorilla

Finally, some movement. I suppose now the summer season is near the end it makes moving them easier.
 
This is good news, I was at the zoo a couple of hours ago and the Gorilla Kingdom exhibit has grown on me a lot, it's looking much better now and it will be great to see a hopefully natural and well functioning group on the island.

I have to say though... whilst I understand that ZSL need to make press releases engaging and catchy, I hate the tone they use, it's so tabloid. I thought the same when they referred to a tortoise love triangle. it's just trashy.

Anyway, good news.
 
Looking at the Gorillas Galore website, it seems that Yeboah will be coming from a bachelor group and a well-represented line.
 
Yeboah arrived at Parc Zoo Boissiere du Dore in April 2003 from Zoo Hannover. At the time, he was a 6-year old male.
 
It will cause less stress for the new male if the summer crowds have tapered off, it would not be so appropriate to have a highly stressed new adult male charging the glass etc in the middle of the school holidays.

I hope ZSL don't lose this male before any breeding takes place, otherwise I don't see how they can go on holding gorillas. Heres hoping he kicks of a period of successful breeding.
 
Why he is well-represented? His father Arti has died and his mother Kathy is a wild caught female. Only three kids of Arti has breed (0,1 Naomi (2 offsprings), 0,1 Melima (1 offspring), 0,1 Josy (no one survived)). And no offspring of Kathy has breed untill today.
 
Unfortunately Yeboah's father, Arti, was Effie's half-brother because they have the same mother, Salome (namesake of the female at Bristol) but different fathers. I presume Effie will either be given a birth control implant or be moved to another collection.

Alan
 
Great news! The fact that Effie and the new male are so closely related is a bit of a surprise, especially as they gave finding an unrelated male from an under-represented bloodline as one of their main reasons for taking so long.
 
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That's not really THAT closely related though, they're what? Half cousins?
 
CZJimmy said:
Excellent news!!

Pertinax (if you're reading this ;)), do you have any background info on Yeboah?
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CZ Jimmy. I think your question here has been answered several times over now. I did think Yeboah was the most likely choice of the three males at La Boissiere. At least they avoided the oldest one 'Atanga' who was handraised (with a chimp). Although he's unrelated to any ZSL female he would have been the worst option..

Both the others are distantly related to females at London so it was an awkward choice. Look for a baby from Yeboah x Mjuku in the first instance (after he arrives..;))
 
nayer said:
Great news! The fact that Effie and the new male are so closely related is a bit of a surprise, especially as they gave finding an unrelated male from an under-represented bloodline as one of their main reasons for taking so long.
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I think you'll find at the end of the day they had to take a male and all the available ones are either related in some way to ZSL females, well represented or have some social problem. The European Gorillas are all becoming more and more inter-related now.

Yeboah was mother-raised, is from a not well-represented line (see above) so his relatedness to Effie is the only drawback. As Alan said, they may put Effie on contraceptives or exchange her for an unrelated female(Belfast or Blackpool are obvious places they could do a swap with).
 
Pertinax said:
I think you'll find at the end of the day they had to take a male and all the available ones are either related in some way to ZSL females, well represented or have some social problem. The European Gorillas are all becoming more and more inter-related now.

Yeboah was mother-raised, is from a not well-represented line (see above) so his relatedness to Effie is the only drawback. As Alan said, they may put Effie on contraceptives or exchange her for an unrelated female(Belfast or Blackpool are obvious places they could do a swap with).
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Best bet:
A swap over for another female with either seems the best option.
Allthough, from Effie's perspective yet another move (her 3rd or 4th) is not a great thing.

I do however urge our Species Coordinator to take a good look at any surplus PL/Howletts and SSP gorillas for integration into the EEP founder population. It definitely requires updating ... :)
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I do however urge our Species Coordinator to take a good look at any surplus PL/Howletts and SSP gorillas for integration into the EEP founder population. It definitely requires updating ... :)
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I think the first Zoo which is prepared to bring in some unrelated Gorillas from the USA would be doing the European population a good service. The Howletts/PL population do have some sort of representation in other European zoos though it isn't high.
 
Has the method of showing a picture of the male to the females before his arrival ever been used before?

I can't say I've heard of it before and it does seem like a little publicity stunt
 
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