That film was very interesting, Tim. Thanks for the link. According to the sign above the little mountain gorilla only lived for three years after this, which is very sad but I assume typical of the era.
According to the gorilla studbook, ‘Meng’ arrived on 10th August 1937 and died 6th September 1941 which tallies with the dates supplied by ‘Pertinax’.
However, the following comes from the ZSL Annual Report for 1938:-
“The unfortunate death of ‘Mok’, the male gorilla, has in some degree been offset by the presentation by the Belgian Government of a baby gorilla, also a male, but of the larger mountain subspecies. He is thriving in company with ‘Jacqueline’, a young female chimpanzee born in the gardens.....”
I think that ‘Meng;’ did arrive in 1938 as indicated on the poster. Certainly the ZSL Annual Report for 1938 records a young mountain gorilla being donated by the Belgian Government that year; although, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, ‘Meng’ was really an eastern lowland gorilla.
To reopen an old discussion:-
I visited the ZSL Library this afternoon; whilst there I looked at the ZSL Daily Occurrences Book for 1938. This confirms “Meng” was acquired that year; his arrival is noted in an entry for 10th August 1938
