but the indoor enclosure is much better and it has separate sleeping dens too (I don't know whether they have such dens now, as that area is completely off show).
One of the kindest things Molly Badham did was 'rescue' the little old female chimpanzee 'Melody' who had lived on her own at a little seaside zoo in Wales for many years. This strange looking Chimp-in some respects she rather resembled a Bonobo though she definately wasn't one, eventually came to Twycross very late in her life where she was integrated sucessfully into one of their groups and spent her final years with other Chimps again. I was always touched by that gesture.
I remember Melody at Barry Zoo from back in the late 1950's . She was one of 6 baby chimps ( almost certainly all wild-caught ) that arrived from Dudley . Of these , 5 died , apparently from unsuitable feeding by the public . Melody lived on in solitary confinement in a small cage . It seems she changed hands a couple of times before arriving at Twycross , where she was housed in the 'new' Chimp House . Whenever I saw her at Twycross , she was on her own in one of the small on-show dens . She was indeed a very strange looking little chimp .
I’ve only been to Twycross on one occasion and that was in 1999 so I don’t have the best memory of it. I have resisted posting on this photograph until now but my first thought was that it resembles a prison yard. These enclosures just aren’t suitable for great apes.
I think that “World Primate Penitentiary” is a rather appropriate moniker
Are Twycross still breeding Chimpanzees? It occurred to me that I can only think of Colchester and Edinburgh (perhaps Chester too?) that are breeding this species. Most of the worlds leading zoos have gone out of this species a trend which has filtered down to less significant institutions.
Personally, I’m not fond of the species so it’ll be interesting to see how this trend develops.
To be fair about this enclosure, as Pertinax has said, it was designed for an old, humanised, lone male gorilla - who was not a very active animal (to say the least). The furniture has been taken down and stacked against the back wall. Lets see what they do with it.
As I understand the situation about breeding, the main thrust for EAZA zoos at the moment is to identify and breed individuals of the western race only (animals of this race can be identified by DNA analysis). Edinburgh's animals are identified and they have started breeding, Chester are still testing theirs. I don't know about Colchester. I think that the latest births at Chester and Monkey World have involved contraception failure. I guess that the Twycross chimps will have contraceptive implants too, to simplify the formation of the new groups: I think it is several years since they had a birth.
So the EEP will be splitting established groups if there are any Western Chimpanzees out there? I wouldn’t have thought there’ll be many it’s been a long time since Chimpanzees were routinely imported from Africa so I’d imagine most wild caught animals to be aged and most young animals to be subspecifc hybrids?
Do Chester plan to keep the species long term switch to Gorillas/Bonobos?
It will be interesting to see if Twycross even bother to acquire more chimps when the current animals have passed away.
I remember Melody at Barry Zoo from back in the late 1950's . She was one of 6 baby chimps ( almost certainly all wild-caught ) that arrived from Dudley . Of these , 5 died , apparently from unsuitable feeding by the public . Melody lived on in solitary confinement in a small cage . I
Whenever I saw her at Twycross , she was on her own in one of the small on-show dens . She was indeed a very strange looking little chimp .
I too saw 'Melody' alone at the Barry Island Zoo- it was a very sad sight. It was very many years later when I was surprised to see her again at Twycross- as you observed, although she was included in the group, she always seemed to be apart from the others.
So the EEP will be splitting established groups if there are any Western Chimpanzees out there? I wouldn’t have thought there’ll be many it’s been a long time since Chimpanzees were routinely imported from Africa so I’d imagine most wild caught animals to be aged and most young animals to be subspecifc hybrids?
Do Chester plan to keep the species long term switch to Gorillas/Bonobos?
It will be interesting to see if Twycross even bother to acquire more chimps when the current animals have passed away.
I think many chimps have been imported into the UK from West Africa, most of them will indeed be fairly old now, but there may be several chimps who were born in zoos here to West African parents. If there are enough of these animals and they are the only chimps allowed to breed in each group, the long term aim can be achieved without disrupting established groups - indeed the presence of infants can help to bond a group together. I guess that most of Monkey World's chimps are wild caught, but I doubt if they would wish to join such a programme.
The only long term plans that Chester have published are for the stalled 'Heart of Africa' project - it included both gorillas and chimpanzees.
I cannot imagine Twycross without chimpanzees either.
Has anybody been watching "The Walking Dead" season 3? This looks a lot like the abandoned prison that the main characters are hiding out in, except it doesn't have zombies wandering around in it.
Has anybody been watching "The Walking Dead" season 3? This looks a lot like the abandoned prison that the main characters are hiding out in, except it doesn't have zombies wandering around in it.
