Matadi and a friend

skoop102 · 22 Jan 2010

Playtime for Matadi and his friend.
She seemed to be enjoying playing as much as him.

taun · 22 Jan 2010

Wow, look at his size now.

Plus I think thats biddy with him but don't quote me on that!

skoop102 · 22 Jan 2010

taun said:
Wow, look at his size now.

Plus I think thats biddy with him but don't quote me on that!

That is my guess as well!
The other one, Bongo?, was inside most of the time, and didn't seem as tolerant of him trying to play - he was teasing her though - swinging the ropes at her, and jumping on the platform above her head!

taun · 22 Jan 2010

skoop102 said:
That is my guess as well!
The other one, Bongo?, was inside most of the time, and didn't seem as tolerant of him trying to play - he was teasing her though - swinging the ropes at her, and jumping on the platform above her head!

That sounds about right, Pertinax informed me that Bongo acts more like a silverback than a female gorilla.

Thanks for the photos btw, they are both great.

Pertinax · 23 Jan 2010

taun said:
Wow, look at his size now.

Plus I think thats biddy with him but don't quote me on that!

You are right this time...

Biddy is also his grandmother. You can just see her 'silvery white' leg(the one nearest to Matadi)

Matadi does look big here but he's slightly closer to the camera. He is still much smaller than the females- or he was just four months ago.

tomzoo123 · 23 Jan 2010

Hey, I go twycross fortnightly now and I can say that he is quite big now. I hope Twycross do decide to keep him longterm at the zoo as it would be great to see him with a family of his own. maybe they will bring in a younger female and have them in joes old enclosure.

taun · 23 Jan 2010

tomzoo123 said:
Hey, I go twycross fortnightly now and I can say that he is quite big now. I hope Twycross do decide to keep him longterm at the zoo as it would be great to see him with a family of his own. maybe they will bring in a younger female and have them in joes old enclosure.

If they go down this route, I hope they bring in more than just one female for him. Gorilla groups need multiple females to stand a chance of becoming a good breeding group.

taun · 23 Jan 2010

Pertinax said:
You are right this time... Biddy is also his grandmother. You can just see her 'silvery white' leg(the one nearest to Matadi)

Yeah

Was going to suggest getting some practice in by a visit!

I think I shall either way.

Pertinax · 9 Feb 2010

tomzoo123 said:
Hey, I go twycross fortnightly now and I can say that he is quite big now.

There is another recent photo on Flickr which shows these two playing close together.. You can see from that his true size- still much smaller than he looks in this picture.

Maybe you can find out what their future plans for him are.

Matadi and a friend

skoop102

taun

skoop102

taun

Pertinax

tomzoo123

taun

taun

Pertinax

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