Gorilla, Guereza and Schmidt's Red-Tailed Monkey island

This 4000 m² island is, since 1999, home to a large family of western lowland gorillas dominated by the silverback Yaoundé. They share their large wooded space whit some guereza and rare Schmidt\\\'s Red-Tailed Monkey. In june 2011, a baby, the ninth to be born here, came into the world.

It is difficult to comprehend that 35 years ago basically every zoo in the world had their gorillas in barred cages with cement floors. How times have changed! Now there are multi-acre, natural-looking habitats popping up in countless zoos, and La Vallee des Singes is one of probably over 100 zoos worldwide that has gorillas in open-air, beautiful exhibits that contain natural substrate.

...and unlike an awful lot of them, Vallee des Singes has trees! This looks great.

Vallee de Singes is modelled on Apenheul- same ownership? Consequently it has similar exhibits- this Gorilla island is excellent and very natural.

Yaounde the silverback has an interesting history- born at Wassenaar Zoo after his mother Linda was sent to Artis Zoo to be bred from. Later seperated from his mother and sent to Artis after Wassenaar closed. In his immature phase he was then shunted around several European zoos (including a spell at Loro Parc in Tenerife), and had about 6 homes in all. Each time he was moved on because of complaints he was aggressive and difficult to integrate, but when he finally arrived at Vallee de Singes he quickly became the perfect group leader. Thus dispelling the myths about him and showing how proper social conditions and the gaining of full maturity are often all that is needed for a male to settle down properly.

His eldest son Badongo, born there, will soon be Jersey's new male.

snowleopard said:

...over 100 zoos worldwide that has gorillas in open-air, beautiful exhibits that contain natural substrate.

Click to expand...

But sadly all too many of them are basically open fields which might be very pretty but are ultimately inappropriate as housing for gorillas.

sooty mangabey;456080This gorilla enclosure is simply stunning said:

will [/I]be spent indoors...

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(don't know why your quote has come up in bold- not deliberate)
That is very true at Apenheul too- unless they've built better recently, the Gorillas must spend much time in the winter months, when the park is also closed, in the small inside areas. People only remember the spacious outdoor areas of the summer months.

Is the Silverback in the picture Yakwanza the male from Jersey Zoo??

GB

No, it's Yaoundé !