Asante the gorilla at Twycross broke her toes on the rockwork during her brief stay at Bristol. It was a strange design outside. I thought indoors only the Central cage was a good size and it never really contained the full 'group' of Gorillas it was designed for. They ended up filling them into the other smaller cages as well which seemed too small really.
A random question, I'm hugely interested in the family tree of Chester's current group of Sumatran orangutans. I saw the picture of Oscar (father to Emma and Subis) as a juvenille, just wondering if this is Oscar's father.
If so, that makes him great grandfather to Chester's current young which is rather fascinating - it's like an orang version of Who Do You Think You Are
If all of this is correct, do we know how much further we can get it back on that side, and do we have pictures of the others (Henry's mate, Ramona, maybe even Henry's parents)
I had no idea that Emma and Subis' line came through Bristol.
A random question, I'm hugely interested in the family tree of Chester's current group of Sumatran orangutans. I saw the picture of Oscar (father to Emma and Subis) as a juvenille, just wondering if this is Oscar's father.
If so, that makes him great grandfather to Chester's current young which is rather fascinating - it's like an orang version of Who Do You Think You Are
If all of this is correct, do we know how much further we can get it back on that side, and do we have pictures of the others (Henry's mate, Ramona, maybe even Henry's parents)
I had no idea that Emma and Subis' line came through Bristol.
If so, that makes him great grandfather to Chester's current young which is rather fascinating - it's like an orang version of Who Do You Think You Are
If all of this is correct, do we know how much further we can get it back on that side, and do we have pictures of the others (Henry's mate, Ramona, maybe even Henry's parents)
Henry and Anne (the 2nd pair of Orangs Bristol had with these names) were imported from the wild (via I think the small Wellingborough Zoo in Northants) to Bristol so you can't go any further back than this with your family tree. But you can go sideways;
1. Oscar's younger sister Julitta(Henry x Anne) was sent to Jersey when Bristol stopped keeping Orangutans. She is now at Amneville in France, with her daughter Putri who was born at Jersey (father Dagu).
2. The female Anne outlived her partner Henry a very long time and had a 2nd mate Adam. They never bred successfully at Bristol but were later sent to Santillana in Spain where they bred once more before they died -a daughter Maria(now dead) who in turn has three offspring, 2 females at Santillana and the youngest of which - male Silvestre- is now at Monkey World. So they too are also related to Chester's Orangutan family (shared grandmother with Emma & Subis).
3. This is quite a rare shot of 'Henry'- as he only lived in that newer house about three years before dying circa 1978.
4. Puluh's parents at Perth were (i think) another wildcaught pair- Atjeh & Puan. They bred many offspring together. Atjeh died a long while back but Puan was very long lived and still alive not that long ago(she may still be so). I've seen her at Perth- she is a small darkish female, rather like Jersey's Gina. (Sumatrans appear to exhibit at least two different 'types' (lighter and darker) in the one species. (I believe the father Atjeh was the other, lighter type as were Henry and Anne, Oscar, Ramona and all Chester's current Sumatrans.)
5. I remember Oscar's mate 'Ramona' at Chester. She was born at and came from, East Berlin Zoo and wasn't a very attractive-looking female. She and Oscar were sent away from Chester, to Eastern Europe, which I thought was a strange move at the time.
Somewhere I ought to have a photo or two of Oscar at Chester; at the moment the only one I can think of is a black & white study, which I will have to search out. I was rather surprised that we don't have one in the Gallery already.
I have a few somewhere of Oscar at Chester but they are old prints. I'd be interested to see yours too.
I never quite understood why they sent Oscar and Ramona away- I presume it was a choice of either keeping them, or keeping the handraised females and starting a new group with them, which is what they did.
