Yes, he was! But then being the son of Jambo, he had good genes I was really sad to hear that he had died in 2006 as he was amazing to watch. I have a fantastic photo of him that was taken by the official zoo photographer in the 1990s, and which hangs on my lounge wall.
What a magnificant animal!
I can definately see Jambos face on him.Very impressive creatures shame about the Twycross situation at the moment, I hope so muich it will get fixed and im pretty sure they are doing all the can with finding a new male .
The enclosures could do with a makover though,I hope Twycross the best.
This is a very good photo of Mamfe(I have it myself) but I have to disagree that he looks like Jambo. To me his face much more closely resembles his mother 'N'Pongo' a trait he shared with several of his brothers(Tatu, N'Gola' Kumba,) and sister (Hallali Kahilli) Find a photograph of N'Pongo and you will see what I mean. She seemed to leave her likeness on nearly all her offspring and in some of her grandchildren too.
Mamfe looked impressive but appearances can be deceptive and sadly he was not a very forceful group leader. He had been handraised which is not a good start and consequently was imprinted on people as much as other gorillas.. Even as an impressive- looking silverback he would come over to the glass and suck his thumb in front of people he recognised which was sad to see, and I think the females dominated him to an extent. He did breed but very sporadically.
I believe the heart attack Mamfe died from was caused by the stress induced by the sudden arrival of a strange Silverback(samSam) in the next enclosure.
