The row of smaller cages on the left are the original gorilla accommodation at Howletts, they connect to the large Gorillarium (sic) by the passages above the pathway. This allowed Mr Aspinall to keep his adult gorillas in a large group, with incompatible animals held separately in the old enclosures. The structure has only had minor modifications since this photo was taken, but a second large enclosure was subsequently built in the corner of the kitchen garden behind this one.
Scanned from a Kodachrome slide. The notice boards on the right list all the gorillas (except for the infants) and can be read on my original scan. The males were Kisoro, Mumbah, Djoum, Bitam, Etoumbi, Kijo, Kibabu, Kibobo & Jomie. The females were Shamba, Mouila, Baby Doll, Juju, Lomie, Mushie, Founa, Sidonie, Kishka, Killa Killa, Kaja & Shumba.
There are a few armoured glass windows let into the wire, the bridges have been slightly modified and I think there is a reinforced climbing frame in the centre of the big cage. Plus I think the brick indoor quarters in the far corner of the big cage, which are hardly visible in this image, have been rebuilt and possibly extended a little. It is not a children's slide, it is big and strong enough for a silverback to use it; as far as I know it's still there. Compare this with my photo from 2008.
1. As GL mentioned, behind the 'slide'(still in use) is the open ground that is now another similar 'twin' Gorillarium which was built after this photo was taken. It now houses the large Djanghou group.
2. The side of this Gorillarium nearest the camera now has a raised block of seating for viewing.
3. This enclosure currently houses the newly formed small group(currently 1.2) with the new young male Sammi from Givskud. When I went recently this one was floored with hay, not straw, but the others all still had straw flooring.
4. The old run of cages on the right currently house just one Gorilla- their last original female 'Baby Doll'.
@gentle lemur Yes, though I have never seen anyone using these, but people(including myself) regularly use the ones overlooking Djanghou's group in the other enclosure. I was also trying to work out how you got your photo i.e. where were you standing?
@Pertinax It was a long time ago, so I cannot recall exactly where I stood; but it is clear that there were trained fruit trees where the hedge is in Maguari's photo. It seems that I was standing on some sort of elevated spot, but I don't think I climbed up to somewhere that I shouldn't have been.
It may just be the angle but looking at this there is a strong sense that the roof is more 'open' compared to today. Is it possible the grating was replaced with something a little narrower?
@FunkyGibbon This may be an effect of the old two-tone paint job. For many years now it has been uniform dark green, like so many other things at Howletts and Port Lympne (you can always spot an Aspinall rhino in a photo by the green paint on its horn ).
Photographers always prefer matt black mesh.
