Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Chimps or Orang's, you decide?

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11jadaway

Well-Known Member
Do you think Port Lympne should get a.Chimpanzees, b.Bornean Orang-utans or c. Bonobos?

a. Chimpanzees are notorious for being cheeky yet clever. While smaller than gorillas and orang-utans they are great to see having fun in an enclosure. As they come from Africa they are 1 of 3 species of ape from the great continent.

b. Orangutans are always epic to see. Only coming from Asia they are the second largest primate (not counting a Bili Ape). Also baby orang's are probably the most adorable thing ever!

c.Bonobos are sometimes stated as pygmy chimps but only smaller by a tiny bit. They are the animal mostly related to humans. They are rarely seen in zoos as they are not a well known animal. They are 1 of 3 species of ape from Africa.

Decide which one Port Lympne would be better off having?
 
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Before they get either,they need to give their existing howletts gorilla groups bigger cages or open topped exhibits a la port lympne.

I believe the aspinal parks are financially in the red, so investing in new apes is probably not wise,at this point.
 
There were two serious incidents involving 'Bustah', the dominant male chimpanzee at PL, I doubt they will ever bring in this species again. Until watching 'Echo of the Wild', I never realised the chimps shared the gorilla complex at Howletts inititally, when it was just the row of smaller cages connecting to the original large 'playroom' - I'm guessing the original gorillas moved in here and were rotated for the chimps when it was built, or was the original cage at Howletts built for the chimps?

I don't agree that the enclosures need to be made bigger. I do think that more of their gorilla population will and should be managed in situ by the foundation, and I would say all of their great ape facilities would be very well-suited to orang-utans or bonobos, both of which I would imagine would breed well.
 
johnstoni. said:
I'm guessing the original gorillas moved in here and were rotated for the chimps when it was built, or was the original cage at Howletts built for the chimps?
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From memory the chimpanzees were never(?) housed in the original row of Gorilla cages at Howletts. But they were housed in the partitioned-off section and seperate brick house incorporated in the first large 'Gorillarium'. It is still there now. Later they moved to the round 'tower' cage at Port Lympne and then left the Park sometime after the accident with the child.

I can't imagine them ever having Orangutans. Aspinall Snr wasn't attracted by them so never acquired them. The other Great ape I could imagine them having though is Bonobos, as they do still go for the unusual from time to time.
 
Pertinax said:
Later they moved to the round 'tower' cage at Port Lympne and then left the Park sometime after the accident with the child.
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I think i'm right in saying they moved on from Port Lympne to Windsor Safari Park, then the remainder of the family went on to monkeyworld when it closed.

Would be excellent if the Aspinalls or another collection took on Bonobos or sumutran orangs, will keep dreaming on! :rolleyes:
 
Gavin123 said:
I think i'm right in saying they moved on from Port Lympne to Windsor Safari Park, then the remainder of the family went on to monkeyworld when it closed.

Some went to Windsor SP but I think others went to a collection in South Africa .
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An orang was once housed at Bekesbourne.

Bonobo should be a great idea. Once in the mind of John A.
Maybe some animals from Twycross? To start with.
 
Does PL actually want another ape species? If, as a zoo group, they are currently planning on releasing gorillas back into Africa, then surely acquiring more ape species goes against their current ethos?

Just a picky point: there are three ape species in Africa.
 
There was a time when Aspinall's had applied to bring over some bonobos from their reserve in Africa as a measure to ensure their safety, but were turned down by CITES.
 
john said:
An orang was once housed at Bekesbourne.

Bonobo should be a great idea. Once in the mind of John A.
Maybe some animals from Twycross? To start with.
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I presume that was 'Amy' now at Monkeyworld, if his owner J. Keeling was working there at the time.

Twycross are reluctant to release their monopoly of exhibiting Bonobos in the UK. But as Howletts/PL have let them have a breeding male Gorilla maybe they might return the favour sometime.

Regarding the repatriation of animals from Kent back to the wild- this can surely only involve a certain number of a few species, despite any stated aims to repatriate everything and close the Parks. I imagine they will continue in their present form- the number of animals moved out will barely be noticeable. So they may well continue to acquire new species at occassional intervals in that case.

That's unless there are some really major plans afoot we don't know about.
 
OrangePerson said:
How is this monopoly enforced? Who allows this and why?

I'd love to see bonobos displayed well.
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I am sure if another UK zoo really wanted to go into this species, then they could, either by obtaining animals from Europe and/or by the EEP requesting Twycross to transfer some to another collection if specialist housing was built- after all, they don't own them. I don't think its an enforced Monopoly but I think Twycross would obliquely raise objections as they would then no longer have the 'only Bonobos in the UK', and I think they have done that before. There are all sorts of excuses and objections they could raise to thwart such moves- e.g 'not ready to leave yet' 'can't split these two up' 'need to keep this one for breeding' 'enclosure they would move too isn't suitable' etc etc.;) On the other hand there have been plenty of moves already of Bonobos both ways between Twycross and Europe.;) And of course there are lots of Bonobos in Europe anyway so Twycross could be bypassed.

Marwell talked about keeping this species some years go but nothing came of it. I think Howletts or PL is undoubtedly the place that would build the best enclosure for them though.
 
mazfc said:
Does PL actually want another ape species? If, as a zoo group, they are currently planning on releasing gorillas back into Africa, then surely acquiring more ape species goes against their current ethos?

Just a picky point: there are three ape species in Africa.
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Even more picky point: there are four species of ape in Africa. Bonobo, chimp, western gorilla and eastern gorilla.
 
Bonobos could do with more founder animals and Port Lympne, with all that unused woodland, would be a marvellous place to build a state of the art exhibit. But I'm not going to hold my breath.
 
IanRRobinson said:
But I'm not going to hold my breath.
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I do wonder what the future holds for these Parks- will they eventually close as is(apparently) the stated aim? What would happen to all that much higher percentage of animals that couldn't be repatriated?

If that is the case I can't see them adding more new species or building any more expensive enclosures at this time- but the 'Aspinall Parks' have always traditionally beeen full of surprises, so who knows.
 
i think it would be wonderful if howletts or port lympne go on to this species but i cant see it happening

as for the african apes common chimp, bonobo, eastern gorilla, western gorilla and human
(mountain gorillas are just a sub. of the eastern)
 
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