Blackpool Zoo Gorilla pregnancy

M

Marcellus

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Blackpool Zoo have announced via Facebook that Maliki is pregnant and due to give birth in early summer.

Excellent news for a Xmas morning!!!

Happy Xmas to all!!!!!
 
Fantastic!

Fingers crossed for an uneventful pregnancy and safe delivery.

I've always thought Blackpool a slightly underrated place and they deserve this for their constant efforts and improvements.
 
Pertinax said:
First pregnancy since they started keeping Gorillas nearly forty years ago. They have never had the correct 'blend' of animals before.
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OK what sort of makeup do they have with this group, do they have more than one female?
 
1 male, three females.

None of them are their original 1.2 gorillas, those are all dead now. The three females are Kena (ex Barcelona, a daughter of the White gorilla 'Snowflake) and Njima & Miliki ( both ex Apenheul) The last male 'Jitu' was, after a number of years with no pregnancies to any of these females, finally examined and found to be infertile and was sent to Bioparc Valencia. The new male 'Bukavu' was born at Munich and came from a male group in Austria.
 
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I hope that is the case, I feel London has been left way behind for to long when it comes to breeding Gorllias and having a good exhibit for them, now its time to step ahead for them once and for all. Lets hope so.
 
MARK said:
I feel London has been left way behind for to long when it comes to breeding Gorllias.
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You're certainly correct in that... its now over 20 years since they bred any.

I'm pretty confident there will soon be breeding again now though.
 
Pertinax said:
You're not kidding... its now over 20 years since they bred any.

I'm pretty confident there will soon be breeding again now though.
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I find it amazing that a National zoo that has been around for longer than most could of been left behind like this even some much smaller collections like Chessington zoo are way out in front, it would make one wonder WHY have they lagged behing so much for a major zoo :confused:
 
It is an odd situation, as down the road at Chessington, several of their females are on the pill, to prevent current breeding due to the cramped/ bad state of the enclosure. They could have potentially produced three, even four babies this year instead of one.

London on the other hand are still trying to reverse their trend and struggling to breed them again. Their problem has been a combination of bad luck and involving a succession of unsuitable males and females over the last twenty years, so that there has been no breeding. I believe the new male will certainly breed with the youngest female Mjuku (from the Chessington group) and maybe with one or other of the others too.
 
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Pertinax said:
It is an odd situation, as down the road at Chessington, several of their females are on the pill, to prevent current breeding due to the cramped/ bad state of the enclosure. They could have potentially produced three, even four babies this year instead of one.

London on the other hand are still trying to reverse their trend and struggling to breed them again. Their problem has been a combination of bad luck and involving a succession of unsuitable males and females over the last twenty years, so that there has been no breeding. I believe the new male will certainly breed with the youngest female Mjuku (from the Chessington group) and maybe with one or other of the others too.
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You are quite right it is an odd situation, maybe rather than Chessington putting their females on the pill they could "loan" one or two more to them so London zoo can get a boost in Gorllia numbers with a few extra babies that might of other wise never been born, that could be a win win situation, If Chessington are going to build a new exhibit or extend the one they have loaning out a couple of females maybe a good thing for both zoos
 
MARK said:
If Chessington are going to build a new exhibit or extend the one they have loaning out a couple of females maybe a good thing for both zoos
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For ZSL even to get one female (Mjuku) from Chessington was quite an event. To be fair to Chessington, although the current situation is far from satisfactory, this is a cohesive group with a core of 4 related females and I think it would be a shame to break it up further by loaning out any more of them.
 
Pertinax said:
For ZSL even to get one female (Mjuku) from Chessington was quite an event. To be fair to Chessington, although the current situation is far from satisfactory, this is a cohesive group with a core of 4 related females and I think it would be a shame to break it up further by loaning out any more of them.
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Further developments ARE at the discretion of the lowland gorilla studbook keeper/EEP Species Coordinator. It is applaudable that in the last year or so 3 non-breeding UK collections - ZSL, Twycross and Blackpool - have received a potential candidate for sound breeding within an established family group. The recommended group composition is 1.3, which to my mind is met by most of the 3 zoos mentioned.

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What the EEP Species Coordinator's opinion is on the building stalemate at Chessington is anybody's guess ...??? I remain rather surprised that despite a municipal recommendation and restriction it has still not happened (however discussing this here would be not in the interest of the Blackpool gorilla thread).
 
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