A sickening image from the UK's worst ever ape accommodation. This was almost all the space the subadult orang pair had. Chessington, 27th June 1972. Scanned from a Kodacolor negative, converted to monochrome because of colour fading.
Female Njonja arrived at the same time with Tuan from the same source. Though perhaps not a pure Bornean ?
In fact Njonja was briefly sent to London Zoo on breeding loan between June and December 1984, with no result.
Of all the ape pairs at Chessington in the old house, the Orangs were the closest as a pair
I hadn't been aware Njonja's sub/species was questionable-I presumed she was a pure Bornean too. Possibility depends on whether she was wildcaught or not I guess.
I guess six months at ZSL wasn't enough to reduce her obesity, she might have bred if given longer. I remember this pair(T&N.) featured on quite a few 'novelty' postcards with stupid captions as they used to sit by the moat with the male cuddling the female.
Baffia and Kumba were a typical 'platonic' pair though I think Baffia became neurotic about males having to live so close to Kumba for so long. Hence her later failure to breed(except once...)
Female Njonja arrived at the same time with Tuan from the same source. Though perhaps not a pure Bornean ?
In fact Njonja was briefly sent to London Zoo on breeding loan between June and December 1984, with no result.
Of all the ape pairs at Chessington in the old house, the Orangs were the closest as a pair
I hadn't been aware Njonja's sub/species was questionable-I presumed she was a pure Bornean too. Possibility depends on whether she was wildcaught or not I guess.
I guess six months at ZSL wasn't enough to reduce her obesity, she might have bred if given longer. I remember this pair(T&N.) featured on quite a few 'novelty' postcards with stupid captions as they used to sit by the moat with the male cuddling the female.
Baffia and Kumba were a typical 'platonic' pair though I think Baffia became neurotic about males having to live so close to Kumba for so long. Hence her later failure to breed(except once...)
