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gentle lemur

Tuan

Bornean orang utan, adult male, father of the two new infants, old island, Realm of the Red Ape, Chester, 13th June 2009.
This is only the second time I have seen Tuan. A correspondent in Belgium tells me that when he was at Antwerp there was no outdoor section of his enclosure, which may explain why he rarely comes outside at Chester.
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GillP said:
they each expressed raucous surprise that Rajang wasn't actually dead ....... 'Oh my god, it moved. I fort it was dead !' or 'Bloody hell, it's alive !'.

I think I've said before ....... maybe Chester could help engage the interest of more of its visitors if it provided more info about ALL the orangs they do have - family tree style inside RORA (as they do with other animals elsewhere in the zoo).
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Funny, I heard similar comments on Sunday from 2 people - thinking he was dead or stuffed until he moved (despite the fact that he was chewing, blinking, leaning on the window etc!!) not to mention the usual he needs a haircut!!

I agree re Chester providing more info re all the orangs - they have such a magnificent collection - both family based with a good track record of young being born. I didn't even know re Leia's baby, only Isnee. The Borneans seem to have been pushed into the background which is such a shame. Even if Tuan does come out, it's not an easy task to see him over the fence!
 
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Andiii said:
I agree re Chester providing more info re all the orangs - they have such a magnificent collection - both family based with a good track record of young being born. I didn't even know re Leia's baby, only Isnee. The Borneans seem to have been pushed into the background which is such a shame. Even if Tuan does come out, it's not an easy task to see him over the fence!
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Regarding the second Bornean baby, the zoo was probably waiting for a couple of weeks so they could determine the gender and whether it would be healthy enough to survive before publicising it.
 
P
'Family trees' are always a good idea- educational but interesting to the average visitor too. Suddenly the amorphous group of animals they are watching become individuals related to each other and with their own histories. Children can try and identify each animal from its age or(better still) identity photo and it promotes a lot more interest all round.
 
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Pertinax said:
'Family trees' are always a good idea- educational but interesting to the average visitor too. Suddenly the amorphous group of animals they are watching become individuals related to each other and with their own histories. Children can try and identify each animal from its age or(better still) identity photo and it promotes a lot more interest all round.
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The Chimp info boards seem to be very popular in that aspect.

Many times i've seen people wander around the entire island trying to find a panel which has a Chimp born in the same year as them or has the same name (or the same name as someone they know)
 
gentle lemur
I am absolutely in agreement with the comments about the labelling of the orangs. They do it with the chimps and the elephants and even with Pixie the male tuatara. As far as I can remember all the educational signs and displays in RotRA are exactly the same as when it opened (although there is a new plan of the building outside the entrance now, which is a good idea). I'm not saying that they all have to be replaced, but removing some of the old ones and adding some new ones would be good practice educationally.
I know the Bornean females are not very active, but very few of the visitors noticed either of the two babies on Saturday morning, even when they were fairly clearly in view, because they didn't know they were there (until I told them ;))

Alan
 
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CZJimmy said:
Many times i've seen people wander around the entire island trying to find a panel which has a Chimp born in the same year as them or has the same name (or the same name as someone they know)
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Exactly. Suddenly the animals are being seen in a new light and on a level people can equate with in e.g. their own families. I've always been a strong supporter of that sort of display though obviously it can only be applied to certain species- Great Apes, Eles, Rhino etc. where identification is fairly easy. The Chester Elephant Identity boards are very well done I think. Whipsnade do it for their rhinos and elephants too- not quite so good but it works. Marwell do it with the Okapis- identify them by the stripe patterns on their rumps, and you see people doing it too.
 
GillP
You've all put forward excellent reasons why readily available family tree and biographical info helps visitors to see animals (of any type) in a whole new light, and encourages extra interest when they find something 'in common' with them, such as a birthday.

When I went to RORA I only realised what the family relationships were amongst the Sumatrans because I got chatting to another visitor who filled me in.

I hate to say it but in that respect Twycross is actually very good. They had an orang family tree, individual plaques with date of birth, sex and name, a 'who's who' photo display (which also included some personality traits), and also info about orangs who'd recently been moved to other zoos. Sad though I may be, I took pictures of all of this ..... will post them up if anyone's interested.
 
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GillP said:
I hate to say it but in that respect Twycross is actually very good. They had an orang family tree, individual plaques with date of birth, sex and name, a 'who's who' photo display (which also included some personality traits), and also info about orangs who'd recently been moved to other zoos.
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I always take photos of Family tree boards- much easier than writing it all down. The first time I saw a really good one was in Jersey's Gorilla house- it is 'Jambo's family tree' and includes his own parents and all offspring and descendants born at Jersey and elsewhere.

Twycross's Orangutan info is good too (better than the accomodation;). They can't do this so well with the Gorillas as they don't have a proper 'family'(though some are related) but I did notice they have put up memorial notices for the several Gorillas that have died in recent years-better than just ignoring it I think.
 
Gigit
CZJimmy said:
The Chimp info boards seem to be very popular in that aspect.

Many times i've seen people wander around the entire island trying to find a panel which has a Chimp born in the same year as them or has the same name (or the same name as someone they know)
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That's something new isn't it - visitors reading zoo information signs? :rolleyes: I heard these comments in Paignton's Ape House today, close to the sign giving details of all of the gorillas (the 4 youngsters were inside and Pertinax and Kumbuka outside): "These are the chimps and there are gorillas outside"; pointing to 6 year old Kiondo "He's the silverback"; and a mystified "I thought gorillas were big".
Paignton has put up lots of very informative signs but the standard procedure seems to be walk up to an enclosure, loudly and confidently display your ignorance and walk on. (I'm going to need counselling before the summer's over!)
 
Gigit
GillP;192668 I hate to say it but in that respect Twycross is actually very good. They had an orang family tree said:
A former very dedicated keeper was responsible for all this. (I'm sure the current one is dedicated too)
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