Nanook

Female Gorilla Baffia on loan at Edinburgh 1992.

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Chessington Zoo`s Baffia, she went on loan to Edinburgh in a desperate bid to get her to breed, but without luck. photo August 1992. As a wild caught female she was very important genetically. She never produced an infant to full-term, though she did once conceive at Chessington but lost the foetus very early on and never conceived again.
Chessington Zoo`s Baffia, she went on loan to Edinburgh in a desperate bid to get her to breed, but without luck. photo August 1992. As a wild caught female she was very important genetically. She never produced an infant to full-term, though she did once conceive at Chessington but lost the foetus very early on and never conceived again.
 
She never produced an infant to full-term, though she did once conceive at Chessington but lost the foetus very early on and never conceived again.

Haven't seen a photo of her at Edinburgh before, although I saw and photo'd Yinka from Edinburgh at Chessington, with whom the female swap was made. It lasted about a year but failed for both females though.

Baffia's problem was the formative years she spent in that tiny first Ape House at Chessington, where she could not get away from the male Kumba. So even later in a larger enclosure she was too frightened of males to allow normal interactions. I was told the conception occurred by the second(Jersey) Kumba cornering her once and mating, it happened just the once but she conceived! A great pity she didn't have a livebirth, or that this never happened again.

She is (afaik) still in the Chessington group.
 
Haven't seen a photo of her at Edinburgh before, although I saw and photo'd Yinka from Edinburgh at Chessington, with whom the female swap was made. It lasted about a year but failed for both females though.

Baffia's problem was the formative years she spent in that tiny first Ape House at Chessington, where she could not get away from the male Kumba. So even later in a larger enclosure she was too frightened of males to allow normal interactions. I was told the conception occurred by the second(Jersey) Kumba cornering her once and mating, it happened just the once but she conceived! A great pity she didn't have a livebirth, or that this never happened again.

She is (afaik) still in the Chessington group.

Yes indeed, she had a very early abortion unfortunately from that one and only time she conceived.
 
Something rather similar seems to have happened with Bristol's current female 'Romina'- only she successfully gave birth and reared her daughter 'Namoki', now eight years old. But she hasn't become pregnant since(AFAIK) and I was told she won't let the male near her.

BTW, the climbing frame Baffia is sitting behind in this photo was made from sections of one of the old outdoor cages of the old Chimp/Orangutan House.
 

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