Biggest Gorilla in UK.

Titus said:
I'd forgotten about Bobby, he was an unusual shape and small too.
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Bobby had a large head in comparison to his small body and short legs. I think his growth was stunted by poor feeding/care in his early years. Had he bred at London Zoo, I'm sure his offspring would have grown normally and to full size though, if the cause for his strange appearance wasn't genetic. Sadly we'll never know though.
 
poor old guy was stuffed and on display at western park museum a year or 2 back when it reopened here in Yorkshire i was amazed how small he was but remember him been on telly when i was a child and thinking he was HUGE !
 
Oh dear, my apologies to Goma (although she did like her little brother, rather too much actually ;)). I know his mother was Achilla, it just came out wrong . . . . :o :o :o

Alan
 
Where's Guy the Gorilla?

mazzy said:
poor old guy was stuffed and on display at western park museum a year or 2 back when it reopened here in Yorkshire
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I thought (stuffed) Guy was on permanent display in the Natural History Museum in London? Maybe they moved him on or was he out on loan? (or was this another Gorilla perhaps?)

Can anyone elaborate?
 
Thanks for this. I didn't realise he wasn't on display any more at the NHM- I haven't been there in many years. So if he was 'behind the scenes' I can see why they might loan him out for a while.
 
2006 ! blimey didn't realise it was that long ago ! what i remember he was very tastefully displayed
 
Mukisi

I worked at Chester zoo in the 1960's and remember being just inches away from Mukisi outside his den, separated by steel bars. He was a truely magnificent specimin, and the old adage of "Hands like bunches of bananas" was apt in his case!






Pertinax said:
No and No. Damisi is an average to large-sized male but still only quite young (13 years)- males tend to gain more weight as they get older so the biggest/heaviest males are likely to be from the older age classes.

Perhaps the largest Western Lowland Gorilla in a UK collection was Howletts 'Djoum'
But the largest overall was probably the Eastern Lowland male 'Mukisi' at Chester, as Eastern Lowlands are regarded as the largest of all the Gorilla species.

The prize for smallest male has to go to the unfortunate ex Rome/Bristol/London male 'Bobby' (originally Bongo 2nd) whose growth was evidently stunted from his early background (reared in a circus abroad)- he was definately the smallest male I've ever seen-anywhere, and his body was no larger than a big female(Bristol Romina) though he was heavier. Howlett's Koulliou is not large either, but he's normally proportioned.
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Paignton gorillas: 29 year old Pertinax weighs about 200kg and 14 year old Kumbuka is about 165kg.
 
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