Is the electrified stock fence at the back still the only barrier for them? It is very simple but also very effective- though I heard that the silverback 'Samson' once climbed over it and nested down on the other side, and then climbed back into the enclosure again later. True or false?
You are correct Pertinax. Here is the story of the escape which I have posted in an earlier thread:
Yes, the electrified fence is the only barrier. During the first year the gorillas lived in this enclosure, one summer night Samson somehow escaped over/through the fence in the back of the enclosure. He quickly discovered that he did not enjoy life on the outside, so he attempted to get back in. When he could not he calmly made a nest of some branches and leaves and fell asleep. The next morning he was captured without making a big fuss and transported back to the enclosure.
You might also be interested in the polevaulting gorilla story from sometime in July 2010:
Today a young gorilla from Givskud Zoo managed to escape from the enclosure by pole-vaulting over a four meter tall wall. The gorilla in question was Kidodo, a ten year old male. Apparently, he managed to break of a large branch of one of the dead trees in the enclosure and then use it to pole-vault over the wall. Some of the gorillas have been seen practizing this technique but no one believed they could actually do it. Kidodo was only out of the enclosure for an hour before he was caught and sedated. It is thought that his sudden displeasure with the enclosure has come because of the introduction of a new female from Heidelberg Zoo causing some disturbance, meaning that he had to be separated from the group.
Finaly, another male managed to escape the secondary enclosure a few years back. This was a male from Duisburg living with his group in Givskud while their own exhibit was being renovated. No one knows how he managed to make it over the water moat but suddenly he was on the visitors pathway. He got very scared and confused and ran out of the exhibit, hid in a small picnic/lunch house a few hundred meters away and waited under a table to be captured by the staff.
So Givskud Zoo has had a total of three "freak" escapes from their gorilla enclosure since it opened back in year 2000.
This was a male from Duisburg living with his group in Givskud while their own exhibit was being renovated. No one knows how he managed to make it over the water moat but suddenly he was on the visitors pathway. He got very scared and confused and ran out of the exhibit, hid in a small picnic/lunch house a few hundred meters away and waited under a table to be captured by the staff.
So Givskud Zoo has had a total of three "freak" escapes from their gorilla enclosure since it opened back in year 2000.
Thanks for the information about the escapes at Givskud (I only looked at this thread again now).My guess is the Duisburg male was their old 'Catou' who is dead now, as their enclosure was redone some years back now.
There is one young male 'Kipenzi' (Samson x Salome) in this group who is genetically very valuable as his mother is dead and his grandmother was Frankfurt 'Makulla' whose genetic line is now very limited.
