Arrived in Barcelona Zoo on November 1, 1966, at estimated age of 2-3 and weight of 8,75kg. Died on November 24, 2003 !!! The first health problems were noticed yet in 1999 when he started to loose his weight. The first skin tumor was removed by surgery in 2001. He underwent two other surgeries in 2002 and 2003. Because he was dying in pain it was decided to put him to death (euthanasia). Of course full autopsy was conducted. And the skin cancer - squamous cell carcinoma (in Latin carcinoma planoepithelialae) - was confirmed.
He was actually a very successful breeding animal as I understand it; but (quite rightly) his offspring are part of the Western Lowland Gorilla breeding programme and as such should never be (intentionally) bred together. It would require another (unrelated) animal in the programme to also have the genes for albinism, which is not impossible but very, very improbable.
As to his having siblings; he was born in the wild (as noted above) so it's possible but there's no easy way of knowing.
He was actually a very successful breeding animal as I understand it; but (quite rightly) his offspring are part of the Western Lowland Gorilla breeding programme and as such should never be (intentionally) bred together. It would require another (unrelated) animal in the programme to also have the genes for albinism, which is not impossible but very, very improbable.
As to his having siblings; he was born in the wild (as noted above) so it's possible but there's no easy way of knowing.
i did abit of reading up on him last night. he fathered 22 ( i think) offspring of which 6 made it to adult hood. as for siblings - he was the only survivor from his family who were all killed by a farmer in Africa.
i did abit of reading up on him last night. he fathered 22 ( i think) offspring of which 6 made it to adult hood. as for siblings - he was the only survivor from his family who were all killed by a farmer in Africa.
No it doesnt, but it makes the likely good very unsure. Your right, there may well be some of this siblings out there however since the 1960s there have been much development in Africa with the population of countries increasing wildly. If this family was killed then perhaps the siblings could have been killed as well. its tragic to think that for each gorilla that was bought into a zoo from the wild, there have been another 5 killed from its family.
I also did a little research into albino chimps. there is one however i cant find a name or an institute in which its held at. also there are only pictures of it young. could ahve died though.
