I remember a story in the press about the orang after i had visited the zoo which complained about the obesity and inertia of the poor guy.
The council who owned/owns the zoo fudged the issue I seam to recall
and blamed shortage of funds for not supplying more climbing equipment.
does anyone remember the details?
That is 'Jimmy/James' who was born at Bristol Zoo, the only offspring of their pair 'Jack' and 'Jill'.
He spent a little time at Dudley before moving on to Blackpool. He was later transferred to a small Zoo in the Canary Isles(or was it Spain) where he later died. The reason he left Blackpool was because he didn't breed- he may have become too humanised from regular T.V. appearances on the Johnny Morris 'Animal Magic' programmes while he was at Bristol Zoo.
The obesity was no doubt caused by lack of good climbing equipment, though his mother 'Jill' was also morbidly obese and resembled a hairy football. So all in all he had a pretty bad deal.
That is 'Jimmy/James' who was born at Bristol Zoo, the only offspring of their pair 'Jack' and 'Jill'.
He spent a little time at Dudley before moving on to Blackpool. He was later transferred to a small Zoo in the Canary Isles(or was it Spain) where he later died. The reason he left Blackpool was because he didn't breed- he may have become too humanised from regular T.V. appearances on the Johnny Morris 'Animal Magic' programmes while he was at Bristol Zoo.
The obesity was no doubt caused by lack of good climbing equipment, though his mother 'Jill' was also morbidly obese and resembled a hairy football. So all in all he had a pretty bad deal.
Good grief! I didn't visit Blackpool in the '80s and so I am very surprised to see 'Jimmy James' in this state.
I remember him vividly as a baby at Bristol - he used to climb on the bars of the old Ape House, while his mother slept on the floor.
It looks like had a rough deal all his life.
Thanks for the update Pertinax, I'm sorry James had such a rough time of it, I bet he found Spain a bit warmer than Blackpool!
Do you know how old he was when he died, and was that full life expectancy or premature?
Dean
The curious thing was that Jack and Jill had just the one baby, and quite late in their life. I had seen them at Bristol for many years and always assumed Jill was so obese they would never breed(I knew that they did mate however). I think they put Jill on a diet and then she became pregnant- but only the once. It was interesting how she was a perfectly good mother too. If James was spoiled it was because he was taken out to the T.V studios too often and made a 'pet' of, and then removed(permanently) from his mother/parents too early.
