Adult male eastern lowland gorilla (graueri), undoubtedly the handsomest gorilla I have ever seen. Tropical House Island (now part of red river hog enclosure), 5th August 1974.
Ektachrome transparency, scanned to PhotoCd and corrected.
Alfred Brehm? Paul Matschie? Carl Akeley? Charles Cordier?
Incidentally, did you know that 'Noelle' and 'Mukisi' feature in George Schaller's classic The Year of the Gorilla. He met them when he visited Cordier who had caught them (supposedly by a humane method, rather than slaughtering the adults in the group).
Chester went out out of gorillas after 'Mukisi' was sent to Antwerp to mate with 'Victoria', unfortunately unsuccessfully. 'Noelle' had died previously and the Western gorillas had gone to Bristol after the 'new' Ape House was built there (now the nocturnal house).
We are told that Chester has no plans to keep gorillas in the foreseeable future, but the question keeps coming up, so I think there are many visitors who would like to see them.
Its always been the single major species Chester have lacked since they phased them out.
They originally had two pairs(one Eastern, one Western) After female Eastern 'Noelle' died, and female Western 'Gogal' was transferred to Bristol on breeding loan, they were left with the two single males. Mukisi was eventually transferred to Antwerp(who also had Easterns) and Western Lowland 'Jason' also to Bristol. He was Chester's last gorilla, leaving in 1986.
There has been talk of them returning over the years- the nearest was when Chessington nearly shed all its animals early in the 90's- Chester were interested in their thriving Gorilla group, but nothing happened as the Chessington animals all stayed put in the end.
With the possible exceptions of hippos (both species), African elephants, white rhinos, wildebeest, sable antelopes, eland, leopards, many bears, sea lions, marsupials, ratites (except cassowaries), eagles, cockatoos (on show) and alligators.
I am sure bongorob could add quite a few more
There has been talk of them returning over the years- the nearest was when Chessington nearly shed all its animals early in the 90's- Chester were interested in their thriving Gorilla group, but nothing happened as the Chessington animals all stayed put in the end.
It's before my zoonerd days but as Panthera implies, weren't Gorillas included in the Heart of Africa plans? I know those were shelved for Islands but I read the HoA thread a while back and there seemed to be a consensus that whilst it was obviously not going to happen, down the line something that looked reasonably like it probably would.
Also I've often jokingly wondered if there is some kind of pact between UK zoos, apart from Twycross, to not display all three great ape genera. It seems very common everywhere else in the world.
With the possible exceptions of hippos (both species), African elephants, white rhinos, wildebeest, sable antelopes, eland, leopards, many bears, sea lions, marsupials, ratites (except cassowaries), eagles, cockatoos (on show) and alligators.
I am sure bongorob could add quite a few more
Also I've often jokingly wondered if there is some kind of pact between UK zoos, apart from Twycross, to not display all three great ape genera. It seems very common everywhere else in the world.
Many of the other UK ape keeping zoos other than Twycross used to have three species, but for various reasons no longer do so. To name the main ones; Bristol, London, Chester, Dudley, Chessington, Blackpool, Edinburgh, even Jersey in its early days, have all had three species(not Bonobos) at the same time in the past, but not any more.
You are correct. Mukisi left in 1985, the year before Jason. When Michael Brambell from ZSL took over as curator he said he didn't want another single Gorilla situation and so moved him out.
