Belfast Zoo Belfast Zoo News 2013

Delilah 50

Having seen posts on 2 elderly apes recently who had reached milestone birthdays, i wondered whether Delilah was still alive. I have found that she turned 50 last month, surprised that this had gone unnoticed, given that she was(i think) the first gorilla to successfully give birth in the UK.
I first visited Bristol around 1973 and I suspect she is the only mammal left alive in the Uk that i would have seen at any of the zoos i visited in the 70s! There may be the odd chimp or orang from London or Bristol still going strong though i guess.
 
pipaluk said:
Having seen posts on 2 elderly apes recently who had reached milestone birthdays, i wondered whether Delilah was still alive. I have found that she turned 50 last month, surprised that this had gone unnoticed, given that she was(i think) the first gorilla to successfully give birth in the UK.
I first visited Bristol around 1973 and I suspect she is the only mammal left alive in the Uk that i would have seen at any of the zoos i visited in the 70s! There may be the odd chimp or orang from London or Bristol still going strong though i guess.
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And, I would guess, an animal with rather few - if any - living descendants. Her mate Samson's genes live on through Salome and her offspring, but I don't think any of Daniel's young have survived, and I don't know if any of his siblings reached maturity either. All really rather sad.
 
IanRRobinson said:
And, I would guess, an animal with rather few - if any - living descendants. Her mate Samson's genes live on through Salome and her offspring, but I don't think any of Daniel's young have survived, and I don't know if any of his siblings reached maturity either. All really rather sad.
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'Delilah' does have just two living descendants, her grandson 'Nasibu' at Lisbon Zoo, and his second offspring born there last year, both with the female 'Anguka' (her first one died.) 'Nasibu' was born at Belfast, the only surviving offspring of Delilah's (2nd) daughter 'Naomi' x Keke. He was handraised but spent his formative years in a small mixed-sex group at Kolmarden, Sweden, before moving to Portugal. He is also halfbrother of ZSL Kumbuka( they share the same father).

'Delilah' is pretty much off the radar now she lives in Northern Ireland(apologies to Belfast whom I am sure value her highly;)) She was actually the mother of the 2nd Gorilla born in UK (Daniel) but the first to be reared- she subsequently had a number of other babies, both at Bristol(Rebecca, Naomi, Benjamin, Jeremiah) and later at Belfast (three more births) but most of them did not live very long. Only Daniel, Naomi and Jeremiah survived to maturity and only Daniel made it into his twenties(23 at death).
 
pipaluk said:
I first visited Bristol around 1973 and I suspect she is the only mammal left alive in the Uk that i would have seen at any of the zoos i visited in the 70s! There may be the odd chimp or orang from London or Bristol still going strong though i guess.
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The last chimp from Bristol was 'Eve' who lived the latter part of her life at Twycross where she died some years ago.

The last Orangutan still alive from Bristol is 'Julitta', who went to Jersey when Bristol packed up with the species, and is still living, but now in Amneville(?) in France(unless she moved again). Both Santillana in Spain and Monkeyworld both have 2nd generation descendants of the Bristol pair Adam x Anne, and the two Chester breeding females are grand-daughters of Henry x Anne.

'Delilah' is the oldest female Gorilla in UK apart from the old ones at Howletts.

Orangutan 'Chinta' at Paignton is the only one I can think of left (in the UK) of the group of ZSL Orangs that were dispersed around the time ZSL nearly closed. Until she died, there was also 'Bulu' of course, the first Orangutan reared in the UK.

The female Chimps at Dudley are from the ex ZSL group of the 80-90's period.
 
From ActuZoo: This week, 2.0 Spotted Necked Otter will arrive at Belfast from Bioparc Valencia. Belfast will become the 2nd European holder for this species :D
 
Nisha said:
From ActuZoo: This week, 2.0 Spotted Necked Otter will arrive at Belfast from Bioparc Valencia. Belfast will become the 2nd European holder for this species :D
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So does that mean Belfast will then hold smooth-coated AND spot-necked otters? That would be a fantastic double whammy! :D
 
Belfast no longer keep smooth coated otters! The spot necked otters will be the only species!
 
Nice to see that this news has broken :) an additional reason to visit the collection sooner rather than later.
 
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