Iconic breeding programmes of UK zoos

[Pertinax]

I'm not a gorilla expert at all (in fact I know next to nothing about them) but the "rogue" young serial killer gorilla theory doesn't seem very plausible to me either.

The wild young male was named 'Boumango' and has featured in some of their blogs about their reintroductions since then. He's never accused of anything bad these days.

Some time after that group was lost, I was at Port Lympne and overheard a keeper talk about their reintroduction scheme. The audience were told Djala was living wild and free, but no mention was made of the circumstances for obvious reasons.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The wild young male was named 'Boumango' and has featured in some of their blogs about their reintroductions since then. He's never accused of anything bad these days.

Some time after that group was lost, I was at Port Lympne and overheard a keeper talk about their reintroduction scheme. The audience were told Djala was living wild and free, but no mention was made of the circumstances for obvious reasons.

This is quite interesting, do you have a link to that article about gorillas being poisoned by any chance ?

 

[Pertinax]

Just type in Daily Mail Aspinall Gorillas murdered and that main article will come up. It seems to suggest both Boumango was the culprit and alternatively that they were poisoned. It can't have been both...The Boumango story was grasping at straws I think.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Just type in Daily Mail Aspinall Gorillas murdered and that main article will come up. It seems to suggest both Boumango was the culprit and alternatively that they were poisoned. It can't have been both...The Boumango story was grasping at straws I think.

I found the article and had a read through it, you are right it is a very odd story indeed.

From the way it has been written (in typical Daily Mail sensationalist style ) it seems that DA is arguing in favour of the Boumanga killing by blunt trauma force explanation (the gorilla is given a bit off a Heathcliff in Wuthering heights type persona in the article ).

It seems that other people (not named in article) were stating that these animals may have been poisoned and then bludgeoned and mutilated to death by poachers and that this was dismissed by DA.

I really don't know enough about gorillas or their social dynamics to hazard a guess on the likelihood of the "Boumanga serial killer" theory but it does seem like an extemely weird thing to happen and at first glance implausible too (though I wouldn't batt an eyelid if the ape in question was a chimpanzee, lol ).

 

[Pertinax]

I really don't know enough about gorillas or their social dynamics to hazard a guess on the likelihood of the "Boumanga serial killer" theory but it does seem like an extemely weird thing to happen and at first glance implausible too (though I wouldn't batt an eyelid if the ape in question was a chimpanzee, lol ).

A wild silverback wouldn't kill adults in another group, though he might try to kill the babies of another male. He would only try to abduct the adults from the other male to have his own group. The suggestion is so untypical as to be ridiculous I think, and there was no evidence whatsoever that is what happened. As I mentioned he's still around but nowadays they talk about him with affection. I think there was almost certainly human involvement in that whole scenario but we will never know now.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

A wild silverback wouldn't kill adults in another group, though he might try to kill the babies of another male. He would only try to abduct the adults from the other male to have his own group. The suggestion is so untypical as to be ridiculous I think, and there was no evidence whatsoever that is what happened. As I mentioned he's still around but nowadays they talk about him with affection. I think there was almost certainly human involvement in that whole scenario but we will never know now.

Again, I'm not an expert on gorillas but I agree with you on how abormal the behaviour appears to be.

Reading through the article it seems that Aspinall and team are suggesting that Boumanga's behaviour in killing may have been a result of psychological damage that could have occurred during his early development (was rescued from bushmeat trade as an infant apparently) and resulted in some kind of schizotypal or psychotic personality disorder as an adult.

It sounds very anthropomorphic as a theory and is dismissed by the other conservationists interviewed but then again there is some evidence that great-apes can develop abormal mental pathologies under captive conditions so I don't know really.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

I think there was almost certainly human involvement in that whole scenario but we will never know now.

There could have been human involvement and the bodies when discovered had been for decomposing for quite some time due to the environmental conditions of the forest but if there had been human involvement then I would have thought they would have found shotgun shells, bullet casings or would have examined the morphology of the bones and found cut marks from a machete.

Of course they could have been poisoned first and then killed by blunt force trauma but I think that is quite an elaborate way for a human to kill a gorilla (and particularly when you consider the availability of firearms and bush knives in the Congo) and the dangers involved from the silverback Djala would have been considerable.

Then you have to consider what the motives of killing the animals would be and that is another rabbits hole with no clear answers.

From a quick glance on google there are existing land tenure disputes between farmers and the government agency responsible for conservation in the Congo in the Batéké Plateau region and this has lead to animosity that land believed by local communities to be suitable for agrarian use has been sold to "rich foreigners" for either conservation or development purposes (I wonder if the former refers to DA).

But would that lead to the killing of gorillas ?

It could happen but again I think there would be a lot of risks involved and I'm inclined to think that local communities would have left clear traces of human involvement if they had.

That said, I think you are right that ultimately what happened probably will always remain a mystery and personally I just hope something similar doesn't happen again in future rewilding efforts.