Facts about the history of the Antwerp Zoo

[LynnLeewritesabook]

I'm researching for a historical fiction novel about the first okapi to come to zoos. Do you have sources or more information on Jozef Hutsebaut. Would love journals, memoirs, or diaries. - LynnLee lynnlee@animalsamplified.com

My story for today is that of the arrival of the first okapis, another species of which the Antwerp Zoo was the first holder ever.
As early as 1907, the Antwerp Zoo inquired of the then Secretary General for Congolese Affairs (Congo was then Belgian Congo and was under the control of Belgium until 1960) to obtain an okapi, discovered 6 years earlier (in 1901). An attempt was made to ship, but this individual never arrived. In 1905, an okapi arrived in Antwerp, albeit a stuffed one.
After the 1st World War, the Antwerp Zoo was largely destroyed. Only 19% of the animal collection before the war was left, this number consisted mostly of fish.
But in 1919, a savior came into the picture, named Jozef Hutsebaut. Hutsebaut was a missionary and biologist in the Congos, who had founded a farm in the heart of the Congolese rainforest. Among other things, he succeeded in taming elephants and discovered many new animal species. On August 25, 1919, he recorded a world first: he and his helpers caught a young okapi in a trap in Buta. The okapi was born around December 1, 1918. He and the wife of the district commissioner succeed in keeping an okapi alive for the first time. The okapi is given cow's milk and fresh leaves from the forest and is named Buta. Hutsebaut arranges for a shipment to Antwerp and thus Buta becomes the first okapi to leave Congo alive.
Buta finally arrives in Antwerp on August 9, 1919, and is nine months old at that time. She is housed in the Egyptian Temple. Antwerp Zoo achieves a world first by housing this first okapi in captivity. Thenthousands people visit the Antwerp Zoo and newspapers all over the world write about it. But because of the les knowledge about the species, Buta weakens within her first month on Belgian soil and dies on September 29, 1919, 50 days after arrival. To make matters worse, every zoo now wants an okapi and a ban on trapping is imposed. Due to Hutsebaut's many knowledge, he gets an exception and is allowed to continue catching okapis.
On 15 May 1928 a new okapi, Congo I, arrives in Antwerp, this time a male. This one, however, survives only 13 days.
On June 14, 1927, Hutsebaut and his helpers catched an okapi again, this time was the okapi only three weeks old, born around May 14, 1927. The okapi is named Tele, after the river where she was captured.
A few months later, the then Belgian King Albert I and his wife Elisabeth visited Hutsebaut's "farm" and the king personally orders him to ship Tele to Antwerp. Tele arrives there on September 15, 1928 and, like the 2 previous okapis, was placed in the Egyptian Temple. This okapi survives much longer and dies of malnutrition in the 2nd World War on October 25, 1943. A true record at the time, which amazed everyone.
In the meantime 2 new okapis arrived in the Antwerp Zoo: Kitoke on 19 August 1931 and Kadanga on 17 August 1932, both males.
Hutsebaut also shipped okapi's to a.o. London Zoo and the Bronx Zoo, but of course also to the Antwerp Zoo.
In 1965, the okapis in the Antwerp Zoo moved from the Egyptian temple to the Moorish Temple, which was previously used for ratites and antelopes and is still home to okapis and red duikers.
Today, Antwerp is as the first holder also studbook keeper of the okapi and Antwerp Zoo holds the record for most okapi births in 1 zoo, namely about 50.
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This was the story about the first Antwerp okapis and why the miracle missionary Jozef Hutsebaut is linked to the Antwerp Zoo.

I am open to critiques or answers.

 

[Enzo]

Antwerp sure did help Rio de Janeiro increase its exotic animal collection. They gifted the newly opened zoo in 1948 with many animals from the Congo, including Brazil's first sitatunga. Then, in 1952, Rio imported more animals from Belgium, including a dorcas gazelle, a red river hog and two moustached guenons. Last, but not least, an okapi from Antwerp was sent to Rio in 1957, but it sadly died en route.

 

[Davidvb]

And as promised, here is the third and final part about Eastern lowland gorillas at Zoo Antwerp(en):
After the Great Ape Building was expanded in 1971 to include enclosures for young great apes, the entire building was renovated from 1987 to 1989. The outdoor enclosures with moats were removed and replaced by glass 'cages' of which only the top was not glazed but latticed, topped with a UV-filtering plexi-glass roof that could slide open in summer, making them technically outdoor enclosures. The 'outdoor enclosures' were fitted with height differences, tree trunks, climbing ropes and various types of enrichment. Below the outdoor enclosures came basements, from which the monkeys could be studied and food could/can be administered. According to a 1988 newspaper article, it was also planned to install sprinkler systems and air-conditioning. According to the same article, the original intention was to make the 'outdoor enclosures' even bigger, but this was prevented by several centuries-old plane trees.
The renovated building housed bonobos, chimpanzees, a new group of Borneo orang-utans, a single Sumatran orang-utan and, of course, the Eastern lowland gorillas, with or without the addition of an occasional mountain gorilla. A new enclosure meant a new group structure and a new gorilla group was formed in 1989. The silverback and breeding male of this group became the experienced Mukisi. The females were Pega and Victoria with Igor (1.0) and Isabel (0.1) as the group's adolescents. Kaisi's role is unclear, though it is possible that he was kept apart as a potentially dominant male.
A bronze statue of the Eastern lowland gorilla Kaisi also appeared near the renovated building in April 1989. Most visitors assumed that it was a statue of the famous gorilla Gust, who died a year earlier, which is therefore incorrect.

On 15 January 1990, Eastern lowland gorilla Pega, the oldest female of the group, died. She lived at Antwerp Zoo for 27.5 years.

On 14 October 1993, Kaisi died, an Eastern lowland gorilla who had lived at the zoo for 36 years (since 1957). Here is a photo of him in the 1980s: Male Eastern lowland gorilla - ZooChat

On 18 August 1994, Amaharo arrived, a name that many of you will recognise as she is the only Eastern lowland gorilla still living at Antwerp Zoo or any zoo in the world. Anyway, she was born in the wilds of Zaire (today's Democratic Republic of the Congo) around 1990. As a toddler, her mother was tragically killed by poachers. Some claim that after this she was kept in someones home but I don't know if whether this is true or not. The rest of her 'life story' was 'published' by the zoo itself in 1994. I quote (freely translated from Dutch): "On 18 August, 4-year-old gorilla female Amahoro arrived at Antwerp Zoo. She was seized by authorities at Kigali airport (Rwanda) in 1992, along with a young chimpanzee. A trafficker tried to get it out of the country illegally. The animal was taken in for some time by the International Gorilla Conservation Group, headed by Belgian José Kalpers. Due to increasing irregularities in Rwanda, he was forced to send the animal to the Jane Goodall Institute. Most of the chimpanzees live there, so Amahoro did not live among peers for 2 years (because of this, she is said to have developed several chimpanzee traits, such as her aggressive behaviour towards smaller monkey species).
Because the institute deals mainly with chimpanzees, a solution had to be found for the young gorilla female. Release into the wild was impossible, given the politically unstable situation in eastern Zaire, where her species - the eastern lowland gorilla [...] - occurs. Consequently, a proper mentoring programme did not exist. Hence Zaire's Ministry for Environmental Affairs asked Antwerp Zoo to take care of the animal. Since we are the only zoo in the world that houses this species of gorilla, we decided to take on this difficult task.
Amahoro was accompanied for 2 weeks in Belgium by her permanent caretaker, Mr Gashamura Shabani. Through him, she was made accustomed to her new environment and her new caretakers. [...]".
It is further mentioned that the name Amahoro in Kinya Rwandan means 'peace'.
What is not explained in the text is why they chose the Antwerp Zoo as her new home in the first place. In fact, her Mitonchondrial DNA was found to match that of gorillas from Kahuzi Biega, which led to the assumption that she was an Eastern lowland gorilla. It was therefore decided to send her to the Antwerp Zoo, the only place at that time with a potential breeding group. Amahoro will later play an important role in the gorilla group, but more on that later.

In 1995, an important event takes place within the gorilla group. In a fight, Igor defeats Mukisi, making Igor the dominant male of the group.

Just less than a year after Amahoro's arrival, on 13 August 1995, the dominant silverback Igor, who may have been a mountain gorilla, died. Igor spent 12 years of his life in Zoo Antwerp. On 8 December of the same year, Isabel(le), the last Eastern gorilla born in Antwerp, also died. Isabel, also spelled Isabelle, spent her entire life at the zoo and only lived to be 14 years old (not surprising since she was the result of inbreeding). Both Isabelle and Igor died of a disease. Some claim that Igor and Isabel would have died from a virus brought by Amahoro, but I've not been able to find any official information about this. However, it remains highly regrettable as the 2 gorillas could possibly still be admired alive at the Zoo at this time. Now the 2 gorillas, albeit stuffed, can be admired at the Museum for Natural Sciences in Brussels. Here is a photo: Eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri) specimens Igor and Isabella from Antwerp Zoo, 2019-12-03 - ZooChat

On 17 December 2000, '(Grandpa) Mac', better known as Mukisi, Zoo Antwerp's last male Eastern lowland gorilla, died of a lung complication. 1 source states that he died in 2002, but this seems incorrect. Mukisi lived to be about 43 years old, of which he spent 15 years at the Antwerp Zoo, therefore he lived at Chester Zoo. 1 year after his death, his DNA and that of either Victoria or Amahoro, among others, was used in a study on the Mitochondrial DNA of Eastern gorillas. It was discovered trough this study that their DNA was very similar to that of wild animals from Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Mount Tshiaberimu (areas where both Eastern gorilla species occur), and very different from populations from Virunga National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Anyway, Mukisi was replaced by Kumba, a wild-born Western lowland gorilla, on 23 April 2002. Kumba was in fact sterile, important since they obviously wanted to avoid him breeding with the 2 remaining female Eastern (lowland) gorillas.
In the time between Kumba's arrival and Mukisi's death, an actually rather funny event took place for several days, proving again that Amahoro still has some chimp traits. Indeed, in late 2001, the chimpanzee male Arnold arrived to furfill the position of dominant male. Funny enough, Amahoro, who lived in the enclosure next door, also had a crush on the imposing Arnold. She started squawking and showed impressing behaviour. It is thought that Amahoro mistook Arnold for a gorilla because of his size. The impressing behaviour was triggered by sexual frustration due to the lack of a male gorilla.
The group was further expanded in 2011 and 2014 with 2 female Western lowland gorillas, respectively named Mambele and (Esian)kiki.
In 2016, Victoria, Zoo Antwerp's penultimate Eastern lowland gorilla, was euthanised. After eating and moving became more difficult, she was examined. In the process, they found a huge abscess in her throat, so it was decided to euthanise her. Victoria lived to be 47 years old and spent all that time in the Antwerp Zoo, as she was born there. She herself also produced 1 offspring. This left Amahoro as the only Eastern lowland gorilla.
As mentioned earlier, Amahoro is an important member of the gorilla group these days. They always choose her to be the first to make contact with a new gorilla, as Eastern lowland gorillas have a gentler nature than Western lowland gorillas.
On 1 July 2017, the new outdoor enclosure for the chimpanzees and gorillas opened, including thus grauer's gorilla Amaharo. An underground corridor connected the old enclosures to the new outdoor enclosure. The new relief-rich outdoor enclosure for the apes came on the location of the old petting zoo. This greatly increased the gorillas' overall living space. The statue of Eastern lowland gorilla Kaisi was also given a new place at the entrance to this new 'Valley of the Great Apes'.
All this did not prevent Amahoro from generally always looking somewhat listless, but that changed with the birth of Thandie, the first Western lowland gorilla born in Belgium, in 2018. Once again due to her gentle nature, Amahoro took great care of the little ape, brightening her up all over again, all this was reinforced by the birth of a 2nd gorilla, Vizazi, in 2020.

I hope you enjoyed reading these posts and as always, I greatly appreciate additions, corrections or requests.

Thank you so much for this interesting and detailed thread. I’m especially intrigued by the story of Amahoro. I did some research into her arrival in Antwerp, but I never found an article as detailed as yours. Would it be possible to disclose your sources?