Taronga Zoo Chimpanzee Troop

Chimpanzee Breeding

It would be nice to see Taronga Zoo breeding their chimpanzee more regularly, particularly females like Kuma. Kuma (1991) has two sons: Furahi (2003) and Fumo (2013). For a species with a birth interval of 3-5 years, Kuma could easily have been bred at least once within the 10 year gap between her sons, ideally in 2008 when Shiba and Sasha both had offspring. Kuma’s mother was sent overseas in 1999 and Kuma initially struggled with only an elderly grandmother for family support. Now in her prime, 23 year old Kuma holds a high ranking position in the hierarchy due to her large size and muscular build, character and the support of her adult son, Furahi. Hopefully Kuma can have at least two more offspring, including a daughter so her family line can continue.

Breeding seems to be much more restricted in recent years, compared to in the 20th Century. Lisa, at 35 years old, has just given birth to her third offspring. Her mother Lulu had eight offspring by her age. Many chimpanzee were before giving birth to their first offspring between 9-11. Lisa’s daughter Lani is 12 years old and there appear to be no immediate plans to breed with her. Taronga Zoo historically used to export a large number of its chimpanzee, often groups of three or four at a time. It is possible the demand for chimpanzee is lower, therefore Taronga is breeding only to its capacity, as well as considering the stress on members of the troop of having mothers, offspring etc. exported. In the 1970-1980s, a large proportion of chimpanzee births at Taronga were female (easier to relocate), in contrast to the 2000s where most of the births have been male.

With the death of Chimbuka, Taronga Zoo’s chimpanzee troop has been reduced to five family lines (note a family line can only continue through daughters as chimpanzee do not recognise paternity in the concept of family support):

-Lulu-Lisa: line likely to continue through Lisa’s daughter Lani (2002)

-Suzie-Shiba: line likely to continue through Shiba’s daughter Sembe (2008)

-Fimi-Ficha-Kuma: line likely to continue if Kuma (1991) produces a daughter

-Spitter-Sasha: line unlikely to continue unless Sasha (1980) produces a daughter

-Koko-Kamili: line unlikely to continue as Kamili (1995) rejects offspring
 
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Lulu's Offspring

Apologies for posting multiple posts on this thread. When Lulu (1952) passed away last year, Taronga Zoo mentioned she had eight offspring during her time at Taronga Zoo. I know of:

-Lucy (1975): sent to Auckland Zoo; then Hamilton Zoo
-Lisa (1979): remains at Taronga Zoo with three offspring
-Lewis (1984): dissapeared of the face of the Earth

Does anyone know what happened to Lewis, or details of the other five offspring? I'm guessing at least one of these would have died in infancy.
 
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Taronga did, but many, many years ago.

:p

Hix
 
Zoofan15 said:
It would be nice to see Taronga Zoo breeding their chimpanzee more regularly, particularly females like Kuma. Kuma (1991) has two sons: Furahi (2003) and Fumo (2013). For a species with a birth interval of 3-5 years, Kuma could easily have been bred at least once within the 10 year gap between her sons, ideally in 2008 when Shiba and Sasha both had offspring. Kuma’s mother was sent overseas in 1999 and Kuma initially struggled with only an elderly grandmother for family support. Now in her prime, 23 year old Kuma holds a high ranking position in the hierarchy due to her large size and muscular build, character and the support of her adult son, Furahi. Hopefully Kuma can have at least two more offspring, including a daughter so her family line can continue.

Breeding seems to be much more restricted in recent years, compared to in the 20th Century. Lisa, at 35 years old, has just given birth to her third offspring. Her mother Lulu had eight offspring by her age. Many chimpanzee were before giving birth to their first offspring between 9-11. Lisa’s daughter Lani is 12 years old and there appear to be no immediate plans to breed with her. Taronga Zoo historically used to export a large number of its chimpanzee, often groups of three or four at a time. It is possible the demand for chimpanzee is lower, therefore Taronga is breeding only to its capacity, as well as considering the stress on members of the troop of having mothers, offspring etc. exported. In the 1970-1980s, a large proportion of chimpanzee births at Taronga were female (easier to relocate), in contrast to the 2000s where most of the births have been male.

With the death of Chimbuka, Taronga Zoo’s chimpanzee troop has been reduced to five family lines (note a family line can only continue through daughters as chimpanzee do not recognise paternity in the concept of family support):

-Lulu-Lisa: line likely to continue through Lisa’s daughter Lani (2002)

-Suzie-Shiba: line likely to continue through Shiba’s daughter Sembe (2008)

-Fimi-Ficha-Kuma: line likely to continue if Kuma (1991) produces a daughter

-Spitter-Sasha: line unlikely to continue unless Sasha (1980) produces a daughter

-Koko-Kamili: line unlikely to continue as Kamili (1995) rejects offspring
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They have probably been reluctant to breed as most of the troop are somewhat related. The prolific breeding success in the past has sort of ironically been a hinderance in the present. Hopefully with the importation of new females from Denmark sustainable breeding can continue again, but for now, these most recent youngsters are a product of inbreeding.
 
Jabiru96 said:
They have probably been reluctant to breed as most of the troop are somewhat related. The prolific breeding success in the past has sort of ironically been a hinderance in the present. Hopefully with the importation of new females from Denmark sustainable breeding can continue again, but for now, these most recent youngsters are a product of inbreeding.
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That makes sense. While Taronga are proud of their family tree and have valued maternal lines in the past, perhaps the issue of inbreeding will now cause them to change direction and export Lani and Sembe. This may well be their plan as they clearly have been in no rush to breed with the almost 13 year old Lani, who could have conceived at least 3 years ago.
 
Zoofan15 said:
That makes sense. While Taronga are proud of their family tree and have valued maternal lines in the past, perhaps the issue of inbreeding will now cause them to change direction and export Lani and Sembe. This may well be their plan as they clearly have been in no rush to breed with the almost 13 year old Lani, who could have conceived at least 3 years ago.
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Yes, Lani is a product of incest (mother x son) and all of the males are interconnectedly related to her somewhat. What is really needed in the future are unrelated breeding males.
 
Jabiru96 said:
Yes, Lani is a product of incest (mother x son) and all of the males are interconnectedly related to her somewhat. What is really needed in the future are unrelated breeding males.
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That would be good, although of course would be nearly impossible without removing at least Lubutu, Shabani, Samkai, Furahi and Shikamoo from the equation.

Taronga managed to do it with a male 'Snowy' back in the 80s, but exported all adult males and had only juvenile males in the troop. Snowy was also a five year old and hence posed minimal, if any threat, to the infants in the group.
 
Jabiru96 said:
Yes, Lani is a product of incest (mother x son) and all of the males are interconnectedly related to her somewhat. What is really needed in the future are unrelated breeding males.
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I suppose Taronga could send their five adult males to Monarto Zoo and import their four females, in addition to bringing in unrelated males around Sule's age. I suspect Monarto would be highly reluctant to go along with this, in favour of holding a bachelor troop. With Zuri (2012) turning three this year, and no infants in the troop, this could be an ideal oppotunity however.

Alternatively, Lani (2002) and Sembe (2008) could be sent on a 'holiday' to Monarto Zoo to breed with Tsoti (1989) and return either pregnant, or with infants. The risk of infanticide may be slightly higher than if they had conceived in the group, but the Taronga group would most likely reaccept them. Taronga spoke last year of removing Koko and Kamili while pregnant and reintroducing them with offspring so this may be a possibility.
 
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There would be no guarantee of Tsotsi breeding with any females brought into Monarto's group, as Sandali is also around (the other two have had vasectomies). Lani is only young anyway, I think it's accepted that females are not intended to be bred from until they are 15/16, so they have a bit of life experience before having their first infant.

The intention is for Monarto Zoo's group to become a functioning community, so I would be VERY surprised if that would be considered. Zuri is only two now, and all three adult females have been swelling over recent months, so further infants may arrive in the next year or so.

To me, removing all the males from Taronga's community so more can be brought in, would be wrong. It is the way of things for male chimpanzees to remain in their birth communities, and where that can be respected, it should be.
 
soona said:
There would be no guarantee of Tsotsi breeding with any females brought into Monarto's group, as Sandali is also around (the other two have had vasectomies). Lani is only young anyway, I think it's accepted that females are not intended to be bred from until they are 15/16, so they have a bit of life experience before having their first infant.

The intention is for Monarto Zoo's group to become a functioning community, so I would be VERY surprised if that would be considered. Zuri is only two now, and all three adult females have been swelling over recent months, so further infants may arrive in the next year or so.

To me, removing all the males from Taronga's community so more can be brought in, would be wrong. It is the way of things for male chimpanzees to remain in their birth communities, and where that can be respected, it should be.
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Don't worry, I was only floating the idea of exporting Taronga's five adult males to Monarto and importing their females as an unlikely but possible idea. This was based on precident where Taronga exported their adult males in the 80's to make way for a new unrelated male.

Like you say, Taronga are more likely to retain their adult males to replicate the wild situation. I too hope this is the case, particuarly for females like Kuma who have worked hard to build up a family unit.

I can't see any reason to delay breeding Lani for the sake of life experience. She has witnessed the successful birth and rearing of 7 offspring (although she was arguably only old enough to learn from the latter five). In addition, she has the support of her mother, the highest ranked female and her brother the alpha male, so she would have more support than females like Kuma did when she gave birth at 11.

With regards to the idea of Lani and Sembe going to Monarto on a breeding holiday, they would not be introduced to Sandali (or any other chimp than Tsoti) as they would only be there for the short term for breeding. This would make any other introductions pointless and stressful for them. Ideally they would rotate Tsoti between the main group and the two Taronga girls, with Tsoti spending a couple of hours each afternoon with them. The introduction of one male to two receptive females should go quite smoothly.
 
While Lani (2002) is old enough to breed, if Sembe (2008) were to be included in this plan, they would have obviously have to wait for her to reach maturity. This would mean sending the two females in late 2017/early 2018.

Of course they would also have the option of sending Lani alone, and then repeating the process with Sembe, although I'm guessing this is not on the cards, as there is no discerning reason of why this hasn't already been implicated, other than the desire to send the two females together for company.
 
Go to History of Taronga Zoo in Google Images. There are some photos of the tea party chimps. Having Afternoon Tea
 
I have recently come across some old Taronga Zoo records. I will try and upload what I can over the next few days.

Bessie was estimated to be born in May 1950. She came to Taronga Zoo in 1954 as a four year old. Bessie gave birth 9 times, these births are listed below. DIED = died at/during birth/infancy,

November 1961 = DIED
April 1963 = DIED
June 1964 = DIED
June 1965 = DIED
June 1967 = DIED
July 1970 = Chiki (female)
September 1975 = Belle (female)
September 1979 = DIED
October 1981 = DIED

Bessie was sterlised through a tubal ligation in August 1984. It was decided she was unlikely to produce any more surviving offspring. One of the 9 births listed above resulted in twins, meaning she produced 10 offspring in total. I believe it was the 1970 birth, where Chiki survived; the twin died.

Chiki was born in July 1970 and died in 2001. During her time at Taronga, she gave birth five times:

September 1981 = Cara (female)
August 1985 = Cheena (female)
June 1989 = DIED
March 1991 = Chunga (female)
December 1995) = Chimbuka (male)

Cara was exported to Wellington Zoo in 1992; Cheena died prematurely; Chunga was exported to Taiping Zoo in 1998 and Chimbuka remained at Taronga until his death in 2011.

Belle was born in September 1975 and had two offspring at Taronga:

August 1984 = DIED
May 1986 = Bart (male)

Belle and her five month old son, Bart, were exported to Jackson Zoo in October 1986.
 
Jabiru96 said:
They have probably been reluctant to breed as most of the troop are somewhat related. The prolific breeding success in the past has sort of ironically been a hinderance in the present. Hopefully with the importation of new females from Denmark sustainable breeding can continue again, but for now, these most recent youngsters are a product of inbreeding.
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Any idea which chimpanzees from Givskud in Denmark are likely to arrive in Taronga?

Also: what is the planning / timeframe for this new import?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Any idea which chimpanzees from Givskud in Denmark are likely to arrive in Taronga?

Also: what is the planning / timeframe for this new import?
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I have been told it is sisters: Ceres (1990) and Naomi (2001). This was last year so I cannot confim 100% if this is still the case, but a on review of the individuals at Givskud, they seem the most likely candidates. There is another female there born in 1992, but considering she is only two years younger than Naomi, and not her sister, I would consider Ceres a more likely choice.

They are arriving in 2015, but not until the gorilla brothers (Fataki and Fuzu) have departed for NZ. They plan is for the new chimpanzee to initially be housed in their quarters.
 
Zoofan15, there should be more people like you. Who are willing to help. Thank you once again it is most helpful.
 
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