I only took a close-up photo of the ”Meng” section of the poster (as I have always been interested in that particular gorilla) but I also took a general view of it too. As requested, I’ve posted that but I don’t think that the text is very legible.
I doubt anyone much knew the numbers of any of the Gorilla populations back then. But certainly the true 'beringei' Mountain Gorillas have probably in recent times always had the same low numbers, given they are an isolated population restricted to just the Virunga volcano region. But as I mentioned, I'm not sure it was actually proven that 'Meng' came from this population(? I do not know).
How did it become that Western Lowland Gorillas became the dominant (only?) Gorilla's in zoos? I assume these early mountain Gorilla's were able to be obtained due to Britain's Colonial relations with East Africa?
While I very much agree that it’s good to see a zoo displaying information about its history, I think the description for MENG is just a nice euphemism for having failed to keep him alive any longer.
How did it become that Western Lowland Gorillas became the dominant (only?) Gorilla's in zoos? I assume these early mountain Gorilla's were able to be obtained due to Britain's Colonial relations with East Africa?
AFAIK no zoo ever lucked out in keeping Mountain Gorillas, let alone in breeding them. So at some stage they were considered inept to be held in captivity. Actually I wonder if that's really true ... I suppose they could well survive in a zoo with modern standards, but of course neither this is going to happen nor would I like to see a Beringei beringei in a zoo, as probably it would be the last resort of saving the species in case the wild population gets under even more pressure.
The “International Zoo Yearbook” (Volume 14; 1974) contains an article by Don Cousins “Classification of Captive Gorillas”.
According to this article “Meng” was an eastern lowland gorilla not a genuine mountain gorilla; this would mean that “Reuben” was London Zoo’s first (and only) mountain gorilla.
Western Lowland Gorillas were imported in sufficient numbers (and sadly died in numbers) in the early days, for successful protocols to be established. Very few Easterns and even fewer Mountains ever came over, so they gave never really 'happened' as captive populations.
