What an interesting series of photographs you have posted, Blackduiker. It make you wonder if the LA chimp troop has really become too large for the space they are given.
What an interesting series of photographs you have posted, Blackduiker. It make you wonder if the LA chimp troop has really become too large for the space they are given.
Last time I was there the troop was divided into two groups. One was made up of only males, while the other one had all the females, babies, and at least one low ranking male. The zoo was going to do this until the youngsters got old enough to be introduced to the older dominant males.
The zoo is being very weary after what happened last year when one of the babies was killed by the dominant male, so introduction to the males was going very slowly.
The troop is indeed very large (I think about 16 now), but the exhibit does have lots of places for the chimps to retreat if they do not want to be involved. I've seen this hundreds of times where the low ranking members are always at the opposite end of the altercations.
This all started with one lone female carrying her offspring, highly agitated. There were no other Chimpanzees visibly on exhibit at the time. But there was much vocalization coming from the second "Penthouse" exhibit area. She was soon joined by two other moms and their little ones. But after the presence of the eventual victim, all chaos broke loose. Only brought under control with the arrival of, what I assume was the victims mom, and a few snacks tossed in. In all, there were never more then 8 individuals on exhibit the entire time I stood observing them; and that includes the 3 infants. So it was hardly a case of not enough space.
This all started with one lone female carrying her offspring, highly agitated. There were no other Chimpanzees visibly on exhibit at the time. But there was much vocalization coming from the second "Penthouse" exhibit area. She was soon joined by two other moms and their little ones. But after the presence of the eventual victim, all chaos broke loose. Only brought under control with the arrival of, what I assume was the victims mom, and a few snacks tossed in. In all, there were never more then 8 individuals on exhibit the entire time I stood observing them; and that includes the 3 infants. So it was hardly a case of not enough space.
Thanks for the reply. Last last time I went to the LA zoo a small incident broke out as well, it seems to be more common among chimpanzees for such violence to occur, compared to all other great apes (excluding humans of course ).
