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You're right- Apes(and other species too) will live behind certain barriers quite happily until some unusual circumstance(such as the above) happens which causes them great stress leading to unusual evasive action- like crossing water, jumping a wide ditch or climbing a wall.

There was a film(Urban Gorilla) some years back that showed a young female Gorilla 'Rapunzel' at the Los Angeles Zoo being introduced into an adult group. The enclosure was a converted grotto -style bear pit with a wide dry(?) moat. The male 'Tzambo' attacks her and picks her up in his teeth. She breaks away and to escape him she takes an enormous flying leap at the moat and nearly manages it but falls back down(she was not badly hurt by the experience)

My point is she would probably never have made an extreme action like that under normal non -stressfull conditions.
 
Here in Belgium-Netherlands they always like to compare with the Blijdorp accident with Bokito (he is still more famous than some hollywood stars according to the fact that evey black/gray ape is now a Bokito, including Bonobo's or Chimps). Even that was not a normal fact, because he is not a normal Gorilla... Handraised Ape's are to focussed on humans, and then you easly get a breakout i think. They see the humans as there kind, and wants to dominate them then, or even more...


In the case of Zamba it is just the fact that it is a young animal, raised by his mother in a group. Just an ape that did't knew what to do. Just a scared animal, that couldn't run back inside. Maybe that an open door (always) can help in the future. The fact he was trained in Planckendael (for ordinary checkups) is a gift, so that he wasn't angry against the visitors....
 
I agree that the doors to the inside enclosure always should be open, but sometimes the keepers need to clean it so the doors must be closed. The very rare situations like in Apenheul can happen again. But can you always avoid such?
 
Gorilla Gust said:
Handraised Ape's are to focussed on humans, and then you easly get a breakout i think. They see the humans as there kind, and wants to dominate them then, or even more...
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Also the younger Bokito had previously escaped from his enclosure at Berlin, again to associate with people.

I never did find out for sure- when he escaped at Blijdorp, did he leap across the watermoat, or climb over a wall?
 
I think he walked through the moat, or jumped over it. In Berlin, he climbed over a very high wall twice and after the second incident, they kept him indoors until he could leave for Rotterdam. I have heard that he had been seen standing in the water moat before he escaped and I find it surprising that the keepers didn`t react, given these rumors are true.. an ape who has lost the fear of the water that shall keep him on his island is a big danger.
 
Yes, but I meant that he had been seen in the water BEFORE he escaped. That should have been a warning and then the escape had never happened.
 
Yassa said:
Yes, but I meant that he had been seen in the water BEFORE he escaped. That should have been a warning and then the escape had never happened.
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It should indeed. And Bokito had already learnt from his two escapes at Berlin that is was possible to leave his enclosure if he tried. If he had started wading in the watermoat at Blijdorp it was a sign he was already testing it out no doubt. Presumably nowhere was the moat deep enough to prevent him? When I went there I thought it was deep.

Have you ever seen the photos of the pair of swimming gorillas at the Ibadan Zoo in Nigeria?. They really learnt to swim in deep water....
 
Yassa said:
Yes, but I meant that he had been seen in the water BEFORE he escaped. That should have been a warning and then the escape had never happened.
Click to expand...

It might have been a warning, but nobody could tell if or when he really jumped over the water, and the moat was build according the safety rules. So no keeper was even thinking about an escape, it just couldn't happen...

We are here talking with the knowledge of today!
 
the enclosure and the moat weren't really build according to the current standards. If i remember correctly the moat was 1 meter short. But yes we learned from the experience and i think the current adaptations are a good improvement.
 
Some baby news!
Wattana (orangutan) gave birth to a son.
A red titi and a Blue-eyed black lemur and a wolly monkey have been born.

(Sorry for my bad english)
 
The red titi monkey is very special. Only 50 of these monkeys are living in zoos (in The Netherlands are 2 zoos with Callicebus cupreus), and the first birth in Apenheul took place in 2002. This new baby is the third red titi born in Apenheul. If I'm correct they have now 4 titi monkeys: 2.1.1

They are one of the species who can freely roam through a part of the park, but most of the time they stay more or less in their own trees (together with de golden-headed lion tamarins, and the old female white-faced saki)

The blue-eyed lemurs are not on display for the public. Sadly enough...

I'm waiting for a new howler monkey. :D (Don't know if one of the females is pregnant though)

22 March is the start of the new season for Apenheul... and we can see a lot of new baby apes and monkeys. :)
 
The rumour goes that three pygmee chimpanzees has left the dutch border due to an international breeding program. Can anyone confirm this? To where are they heading?
 
Yup:
"Bonobo's Mobikisi, Liboso en Nayembi are leaving tomorrow to Stuttgart".
Source: Twitter Apenheul (9 november)

"Next spring three bonobo's from Cologne will arrive at Apenheul".
Source: Local news
 
Apenheul's female Sifaka gave birth last night, according to Apenheul's Twitter account.

I'll keep you updated wether it's male :( or female :D
 
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