Lowland gorillas in Europe 2012

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correction to Damisi's group, extended version.

The Chessington female 'Kaja's parents were Kisoro x Juju, not Bitam or Matibe.
 
praguegorilla said:
Just a question, what do you recall about Richard's personality when he was young? He seems serious today but has a playful side to him. many thanks :)
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sorry, I can't help you there- I only saw him a few times on visits to Paignton- I don't 'know' the characters of their Gorillas. But again 'serious with a playful side' is very typical of many male Gorillas.;)
 
Willard said:
I got the impression that he was not very helpful when Bikira joined the group. I've seen quite some attacks on her when he did not intervene or even seemed to blame her for getting in troubles with the other females. Being the leader I'd expected him to stop the fights with some more, well, leadership qualities.
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In fairness to Richard, I think the way they did Bikira's introduction -to the whole group and very soon after her arrival, meant he was still pretty unfamiliar with her. During the initial fights his loyalty may have been divided between his own family and this 'stranger'. In one of the videos he appears to defend Bikira by shielding her with his body but I suspect he was confused by the whole situation. My guess is a scenario like this would never happen in the wild.
 
Willard said:
Everything was peaceful and quiet. I wonder though how long it will stay this way, as Awembe is almost 12 now and almost as big as Kisumu.
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Port Lypmne have had a group of adult silverbacks living together well into their twenties, but recent fighting has meant they have had to be split more- one died while another has already lived alone for several years now.

Sometimes it works longterm, other times there is trouble earlier on. Seems to vary according to the individuals involved.
 
No worries Pertinax :) It is interesting how you described his athletic body shape. I have never seen a silverback gorilla, except for Damisi, so slender.

I am glad Damisi had a girl. Chessington is amazing when it comes to the way they look after their gorillas. They have a gorilla cam on Facebook. The gorillas have snacks at 11:45 and 1:45. I will see if I can get a glimpse of the baby in 30 minutes :)
 
Chessington family tree

Pertinax said:
correction to Damisi's group, extended version.
The Chessington female 'Kaja's parents were Kisoro x Juju, not Bitam or Matibe.
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I have been having suspicions that the layout of my trees can cause misunderstandings.

Kaja's parents are not listed in that tree at all. As the description says, an arrow always points to an offspring. When you look at Matibe, there are two arrows pointing to him, one from Kaja, one from Bitam, meaning they are Matibe's parents.

The other arrow starting from Kaja points to Asili, her other daughter. Asili's father is Kumba, connected by a short vertical line with Kaja. This line means they both are parents of the individual below them. Due to lack of space I can't always put the parents next to each other (horizontally), their offspring in the middle below them and connect them with two arrows.

(However, in the bottom half of this tree the vertical line means "siblings", not "parents".)

Here is the link again: Gorilla Family - Chessington - Damisi's Group (Version 2) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
Willard said:
I have been having suspicions that the layout of my trees can cause misunderstandings.

Kaja's parents are not listed in that tree at all. As the description says, an arrow always points to an offspring. When you look at Matibe, there are two arrows pointing to him, one from Kaja, one from Bitam, meaning they are Matibe's parents.
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Sorry, misread it- too much of a hurry.:o I understand it properly now!
 
The new male for Leipzig is supposed to become "Abeeku" (born at Rotterdam, May 5th 1999, Opole since May 17th 2005 together with two brothers).
 
RIP Sakina

I am saddened to have post news of the sudden death of the ex Jersey female "Sakina" at Gaiapark.... :( following statement posted onto the facebook of Gaiapark today (originally in Dutch and now translated into English)

Gorilla woman Sakina d.
In may started it all very nice, Sakina came to GaiaZOO after they could not in the Zoo of Münster earthen.
The introduction went for speedy and actually already after about 2 to 3 weeks made Sakina fully part of our gorilla group.

Unfortunately, she was at the beginning of this week suddenly ill, she ate no more and only slept. Of course, this caused the alarm bells ringing immediately before that went to animal caregivers. Tuesday our veterinarian brought together with an echo under anesthesia specialist and examined Sakina. Of the results we were absolutely not happy, there were already a peritonitis and a uterus inflammation directly.
Reason so to large care, that is why we had to looking for a team of people who could operate Sakina. The team consisted of a surgeon who is experienced with this kind of operations and a veterinarian who also frequent this kind of big interventions carried out. Together with our own veterinarian and a team of carers as assistants is brought back under anesthesia and inner Sakina Thursday examined.

It soon became apparent that the situation was much more serious than imagined. The surgeons have done their best to help, but this proved impossible Sakina of contents and ultimately decided not to let her more.

Sakina has the last 3 months of her life at a huge impression in the first instance the other gorillas. They made sure that everyone was aware of her presence and in addition also have the animal carers tremendously from its special character enjoyed; a real Web Lady
 
Sad news about Sakina- particularly as they had finally managed to move her from her birthplace at Jersey- where she had unfortunately led a very unproductive life, never having bred.:( Gaia Park seemed it might have been her first chance to do so, had she not become ill like this.
 
Madrid

I have heard that little Gaya (b. 09-Dec-2010) in Madrid died as well. According to the studbook in July, but someone on a Spanish forum says in February. The zoo, not surprisingly, says nothing at all. - Does anyone here know more?
 
Update from Barcelona:
Female, Bantanga gave birth to a daughter on 1st September
 
Bioparc Valencia.

Any truth in the rumour that gorilla 'Mambi' has fathered a baby with one of the females here?
 
Willard said:
Sha Sha from Howletts was moved to Münster, Germany to replace Sakina (who recently died in Kerkrade's GaiaPark). According to this site www.pvsteegen.de - Gorillas she arrived on (or before) September 15.
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Good move as will have a fully socialised female in the Muenster group. It did wonders to my own zoo when a socially well adapted female with previous experience of her mother giving birth and raising a gorilla baby came, saw and vindicated everyone. She subsequently raised her own .. and thus let both handreared females see how it is done. I expect she will be a model female for the Muenster group.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I expect she will be a model female for the Muenster group.
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'Shasha' was born and raised in the Kijo group(Kijo x Shumba) at Howletts but for some reason more recently was placed in the 'oldie' group comprising the three old wildborn females, the youngest son(Bitanu) of one of them (Juju) together with one of the two females (Imbi) that has since gone to Brazil.

She is definately properly socialised and I presume this is why Munster/EEP asked for her to replace the failed 'Sakina', both because she would integrate better plus the maternal aspect too. Howletts do seem more prepared to let some of their Gorillas, including the more valuable females, go to other zoos nowadays as per EEP recommendations. Possibly they might eventually receive a male unrelated to all their own groups in return via the EEP.
 
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