Belfast Zoo Belfast Zoo News 2014

vogelcommando said:
Update about Baako the Gorilla baby :
UPDATE! Gorilla Baby Baako Bonds with the Family - ZooBorns
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Its good to see this little group finally breeding again after 16 years of nothing. The baby looks in tiptop condition and great to see him interacting with his father Gugas who is so gentle with him.

Its also an example of how shifting around animals promotes breeding too. Apart from moving out the infertile 'Boulas'(to Longleat) I attribute this success very much to exchanging the adult female 'Bikira' (to Prague where she bred almost immediately) with the younger female 'Kwanza' from France. This meant 'Gugas' was no longer psychologically the 'baby' of the group so he was better able to fulfill his proper role. It has certainly paid off as this genetically important male-afaik the last wild-caught Gorilla to enter a European Zoo-is now a breeder.
 
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new baby gorilla

This is very gratifying news, as this is Kamili's first baby in sixteen years- her first being Kumbuka, now the silverback at London Zoo, where Kamili's mother 'Zaire' also lives. Kumbuka was handraised but she looks to be very capable at mothering her new baby in these photos.

The very long interval between her two births is almost certainly due to the previous male 'Boulas' who was apparently infertile and didn't breed during his ten years at Belfast Zoo. The recent baby male 'Baako' was their first birth there in sixteen years, the last before that would probably have been Kamili's previous birth.
 
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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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Don't know if Ian ever went to Belle Vue,Manchester but when I was at Rochester Zoo,New York last year they had a female Orang that was born there-I made the comment to a keeper that it must be a long time since they had a visitor who saw her back in the U.K.[now called Kumang, I doubt that was her BV name].
 
Tim Brown said:
[now called Kumang, I doubt that was her BV name].
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It was indeed. Born 15th Oct.1977( Manchester 4)
Transferred to Weybridge 15th Nov. 1977.

So only at BV for her first month. Evidently moved along with the rest of BelleVue's Orangutans when they were sold to G. Mills. 'Kumang' went to America in 1984, probably when he-and his surviving apes- moved there.
 
Thanks Pertinax...in that case I never saw her then,isnt there a saying about a little bit of knowledge being dangerous? Incidentally Im sure the keeper told me she was pregnant[seems rather old].
 
She would be 37 now so still within the normal breeding parameters, provided she's bred previously that is.
 
Its just lifted from a previous press release, its the same article (possibly precised a bit);).
 
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I was at the zoo recently and on the zoo map there were a lot of exhibits which were labelled as "under development". One of the exhibits under development was the cheetah exhibit which was being split into two separate exhibits, so I was wondering will the cheetahs be leaving the zoo? I noticed the walk through aviary had been removed from the zoo map altogether however when I arrived at the exhibit it said it had only been closed for renovations.

Also are there any other animal species coming to the zoo? And is there any plan to use an parts of the old zoo to house animals?

In other news, recently the Javan Brown Langurs left the zoo to move to a South African Primate Park as well as the only male member of the black and white colobus monkey troop. 2 females and a male colobus monkey will join the zoo soon from Germany.
 
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