Benji, Rosie and Tuli, (thank you josh_08). I'm sure we all hope that they can be rehoused very soon.
People unfamiliar with the Twycross chimps will be surprised that several of them have the rare gene for brown coats, which also seems to make them prone to alopecia. This image reminds me of the limerick about the young lady called Starkie, which is so politically incorrect that it cannot be repeated here. Twycross, 20th October 2012
Title corrected, see discussion below for further corrections.
Benji, Rosie and Tuli, (thank you josh_08). I'm sure we all hope that they can be rehoused very soon.
People unfamiliar with the Twycross chimps will be surprised that several of them have the rare gene for brown coats, which also seems to make them prone to alopecia. This image reminds me of the limerick about the young lady called Starkie, which is so politically incorrect that it cannot be repeated here. Twycross, 20th October 2012
This is coco (chocolate) mongo (bald) and the third i cannot remember sorry. I did not see these three on my visit so assumed they had been moved into Rickys group (house behind Norton which is no access to visitors) but they must have just been indoors (which is also not viewable). This means there are six chimps remaining in Greenmile and not just the three previously thought.
People unfamiliar with the Twycross chimps will be surprised that several of them have the rare gene for brown coats, which also seems to make them prone to alopecia.
It's a nickname given by Zoochatters to a row of cages (there's really no other word for them) that hold chimpanzees. Have you heard of the prison movie with the same name?
The female on the right in this photo is Twycross' original brown female 'Coco'. As youngsters they are a caramel/chocolate colour with lighter skin, but darken significantly with age, though you can still see the difference in skin pigment colour from the black chimp behind her.
They also seem to carry this gene for Alopecia and although Coco has not got it, some of her offspring have, so I suspect 'Mongo'(?) on the left is one of hers.
There is a 'chocolate' chimp at Colchester too- this one shows the normal 'younger' colouration. That one is also related to Coco via her offspring.
There is at least one photo of a 'Green Mile' cage further down this Gallery.
Originally they were a run of mesh cages built against a high stone wall, in the early(?) 1960's for the very early Twycross Apes, including pairs of Gorillas and Orangutans. Later they just held large numbers of Chimpanzees, all in pairs or very small groups/trios. They were later extended to make them much deeper and glass viewing windows put in, and re-painted. However over time they have become very dated-looking and aroused much comment on here as a result.
I apologise for misleading people, both josh_08 and I jumped to the same conclusion without knowing that we were using different evidence. I thought I recognised the brown chimp on the right, but I hadn't realised that old Coco was still alive. I saw her on my first visit to Twycross, around 40 years ago and I guess she must have been at least 7 then - so she is positively venerable now.
However this gives me another chance to moan about Twycross taking down all the signs with the animals' names.
