Bristol Zoo (Closed) baby orang

[bongorob]

Pertinax do you know which baby orang I would have seen at Bristol in the autumn of 1978. It was a Sumatran baby with a keeper out in the grounds, suggesting a hand-reared animal.

 

[Pertinax]

Pertinax do you know which baby orang I would have seen at Bristol in the autumn of 1978. It was a Sumatran baby with a keeper out in the grounds, suggesting a hand-reared animal.

I'm a bit perplexed by this- I would have said 'Oscar' who was handraised and later sent to Chester and became the father of Emma & Subis, but he was born in 1971 so by 1978 was seven years old. He was still at Bristol in 1978 though and went to Chester the next year(79).

Anne(Oscar's mother) had three babies- Oscar (1971) Henrietta(1972) and Julitta(1975) she raised the two females herself but maybe they took them out of the cage sometimes- certainly Anne was taken for walks in the zoo. So alternatively it might have been one of them, depending on is age/size.

 

[gentle lemur]

I have just posted a photo from 1976 in the Gallery. It shows Henrietta with two of her youngsters on the lawn in front of the Ape House with Mike Colbourne.
I had thought they were Oscar and Henrietta, but the smaller one is probably Julitta. Perhaps all three were there, but I don't remember more than two and I think they would have needed another keeper present. Anne was very tame, so I guess they would babysit her infants to allow her back in with Henry, which would explain the relatively short interval between the second and third births.

Alan

 

[Pertinax]

Anne was very tame, so I guess they would babysit her infants to allow her back in with Henry, which would explain the relatively short interval between the second and third births.

Alan

I never liked this style of husbandry much...:
I would have liked to have seen the apes left more to their own devices but with much more enrichment and far more food available during the daytime.