Colchester Zoo Dose anyone know the history of colchester zoo chimps and their encoulrse ?

i know that the house was opened in 1992 by radio 1 dj Simon Mayo.
as for the history of the chimps, check out da gallery under colchester zoo, there is a pic of da poster in the house about all the chimps and their historys.
 
At least one of the Chimps is related to Coco from Twycross because they have a chocalate coloured youngster at Colchester.
 
'chimp world' was a big investment for Colchester back then, and it cost £750,000 to build, and was constructed on the site of the lion/indian tiger paddocks. This was pre hotwire and pre monkey world, so I think at the time it was looked upon as progressive, much as the new chimp exhibit at the Welsh Mountain zoo was. That awful twycross-type walled children's playground had just been completed for the chimpanzee group at Windsor safari park, so Colchester's enclosure must have looked amazing in comparison.

Previous to this, the chimps were in the old giraffe house (where 'dragons of komodo' is now, then tapir/babirusa enclosures for a while), which gave them the strange but not entirely undesirable situation of having more indoor than outdoor space. The house was split into narrow, but very tall, interconnecting cages that were about three-quarters the width of the house, with a tall, glass viewing instead of a safety barrier. There were no direct windows into the enclosure. There were 2 outdoor cages, maybe the same height as the sobell monkey cages at london, only with far less opportunity for climbing. After the 1987 hurricane, some of the zoos carnivores were housed here, leaving the chimps with only one outdoor cage as far as I can remember (jaguars/ spotted hyenas). The amur tigers were housed permanently in what had been the outdoor giraffe yard and I think their dens might have been adjacent to the chimpanzees indoor quarters, but not inside the building itself.

I don't think that new chimps have arrived at Colchester for a couple of decades at least (but I'm not 100%), and with contraceptives the group has shrunk a bit. I think the contraceptives failed a couple of years ago resulting in that last baby. The outdoor area is looking particularly dated these days, and I would expect that it won't be long before they give the chimpanzees an improved exhibit.
 
zoogiraffe said:
At least one of the Chimps is related to Coco from Twycross because they have a chocalate coloured youngster at Colchester.
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I heard they received at least one chimp from Twycross in recent years but the chocolate youngster produced at Colchester is interesting as you would expect both normal- coloured parents(not just one) would have to be carriers of the recessive gene for 'chocolate' in order to produce it. Did they receive two recessive 'carriers' from Twycross, or an already pregnant female perhaps? Does Anyone know the exact details of its parentage?

I looked at the chimpanzee family tree photo in the Gallery. The last baby shown is Tumba born 2004. Is that the chocolate baby(its difficult to tell from the photo)?
 
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Just out of interest does anyone have any photos of the enclosure?
Also, does anyone have any of the chimp enclosure at Colwyn Bay?
Thanks
 
Pertinax said:
I heard they received at least one chimp from Twycross in recent years but the chocolate youngster produced at Colchester is interesting as you would expect both normal- coloured parents(not just one) would have to be carriers of the recessive gene for 'chocolate' in order to produce it. Did they receive two recessive 'carriers' from Twycross, or an already pregnant female perhaps? Does Anyone know the exact details of its parentage?

I looked at the chimpanzee family tree photo in the Gallery. The last baby shown is Tumba born 2004. Is that the chocolate baby(its difficult to tell from the photo)?
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Yep i believe thats the one.
 
The male Pippin , son of Coco and male Bimbo , born in 1986 at Twycross , went to Colchester in 1992 . I am not aware of any other Twycross chimps going to Colchester .

Twycross produced another chocolate chimp by breeding Coco with her normal-coloured son Bobby , this was jambo , the 'bald' chimp .
 
Bele said:
The male Pippin , son of Coco and male Bimbo , born in 1986 at Twycross , went to Colchester in 1992 . I am not aware of any other Twycross chimps going to Colchester .

Twycross produced another chocolate chimp by breeding Coco with her normal-coloured son Bobby , this was jambo , the 'bald' chimp .
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Yes, I thought Pippin was the one from Twycross. I'm surprised he could father a chocolate baby with an unrelated female- unless the Colchester female he bred with quite by chance carried the same gene? Otherwise the normal procedure is what they did at Twycross, e.g. breeding Coco with her normal son(who also had the chocolate gene) to produce another Chocolate one.
 
many thnaks for everyones info ... has been very helpfull have found a few names of old chimps;

Hannah female died 05

Mandy female

Bobby male

if anyone knows a bit about them please reply ..... or any other chimps there please say

thnx again for the info ..... keep it up :)
 
mandy died in 2001 i think.
didn't there used to be american alligators where the slender snouted crocs are now in chimp world?
 
yes, there were previously 2 American Alligators in that pool.

'Chimp World' in actual fact cost £250,000 , not £750,000 as I said before.
 
Pertinax said:
Yes, I thought Pippin was the one from Twycross. I'm surprised he could father a chocolate baby with an unrelated female
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Both Bobby and Pippin were sons of Coco, the wild caught chocolate chimp. Bobby was sired by Oscar, Pippin by Benjie, so they were half brothers. However, both obviously had to carry the chocolate gene from their mother.

I checked up in the Stud Book - Bobby was moved from Twycross to Colchester and sired Tekita, the female that Pippin produced Tumba, the chocolate infant with.

Bobby evidently passed the recessive chocolate gene on to Tekita. As Pertinax commented, it would be unusual for Pippin to father a chocolate infant with an unrelated female - and as it happens Tekita IS related to Pippin - she is his "half niece".
 
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I do think that Chimp World is one of the areas that needs working on asap. But with the new Sun Bear enclosure and the new tropical house in the pipe line it might be a while before we see a new chimp house. Not to mention a lack of space.
It will be interesting to see what the zoo has in mind for Sasha's enclosure when he dies.
 
GreatApe said:
Both Bobby and Pippin were sons of Coco, the wild caught chocolate chimp. Bobby was sired by Oscar, Pippin by Benjie, so they were half brothers. However, both obviously had to carry the chocolate gene from their mother.

I checked up in the Stud Book - Bobby was moved from Twycross to Colchester and sired Tekita, the female that Pippin produced Tumba, the chocolate infant with.
.
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I didn't realise Colchester had two males from Twycross(and both from Coco)So there's a simple explanation as you outline above. Both males carried the relevant gene, one passed it on to his daughter and the other then mated with her, by chance producing another chocolate baby.
 
This is Colchester's Current group:
Male-
Pippin
Tumba
Tombe
Female-
Talia
Tara
Tekita
Billy-Joe
Kora.
Hope this helps.
Regards Jordan.
 
Billy-Joe, female, was wild born and kept in a lab for an unknown number of years before coming to Colchester in March 1983.
Tara, female, was born to Billy-Joe and George in October 1985.
Pippin, male, was born at Twycross in March 1986 and moved to Colchester in January 1992.
Tekita, female, was born to Tara and Bobby (Twycross chimp) in February 1996. She was born at Colchester.
Tombe, male, was born at Colchester in August 1996 to Bobby and Mandy.
Kora, female, was born at Colchester in November 1999 to Billy-Joe and Bobby.
Tumba, male, was born at Colchester in December 2004 to Tekita and Pippin.
Talia, female, was born at Colchester in March 2009 to Tekita and Pippin.

Pippin was alpha male until about 18months to 2 years ago when Tombe took over.

The current enclosure is being expanded and the L'Hoest monkeys will be moved (unsure whether the keeper meant to another part of the zoo or to another collection....) to allow for this expansion. I was told that the sun bear enclosure is being done first and then this will be done afterwards.
 
MonkeyGirl86 said:
The current enclosure is being expanded and the L'Hoest monkeys will be moved (unsure whether the keeper meant to another part of the zoo or to another collection....) to allow for this expansion. I was told that the sun bear enclosure is being done first and then this will be done afterwards.
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I hope they keep the L'Hoests Monkeys as they've done well from just a single pair. But the group size now means they will soon need a larger enclosure anyway.

Giving the chimpanzees that extra space will give them a good-sized exhibit for their growing group which is nicely balanced socially.
 
Yeah I hope the zoo keeps the L'Hoests Monkeys, they are amazing to watch and have a great breeding record.
 
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