Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Jersey zoo

[MARK]

Too right Jelle

 

[Pertinax]

Maybe, I am breaking a tradition here. But why would Jersey need to hold on to its gorillas if they have not been breeding successfully for so long? Is it not time to give the 3 females that display to him a chance at another zoo instead so their genes will become represented better in the zoo population? Is Bekesbourne or the new family group at Port Lympne not a good home?

Ya Kwanza could stay as part of a male bachelor grouping. And his genes be preserved by electro-ejaculation and freezing (the frozen zoo). I think much of it has to do with his history of social ineptitude (his early upbringing in Oz).

You are absolutely right it has a lot to do with his early rearing. Knowing this I thought at the time he was a risky choice as their new male, and so he has proved They were lucky indeed that he started to play with Kahilli- which then later led to mating, otherwise he would have bred with NO female at Jersey.

Jersey do acknowledge his shortcomings in the breeding stakes, but they also seem content that they have a small harmonious group without the frequent babies they produced in the 'Jambo' era.

If they sent the non-breeding females elsewhere, they'd have no gorilla group to exhibit.Two of them(Kishka and Sakina) are from well represented Howletts & Jersey lines anyway. Another change of male is therefore the obvious solution, but they seem very reluctant to do it.

 

[Pertinax]

AI is not working well with gorillas, just in contrary. I am not aware of any other gorillas sired by AI then Ya Kwanza. I agree that the other females (at least the genetically valueable female from Melbourne) must be given a better chance to breed, but Ya Kwanza is much too important genetically to make him a leader of a bachelor group!!! Send the females with whom he is not breeding away and add one or two more young females and see if he will breed them. If not, he will probably/hopefully have another baby with Kahili which would really be important for the european population.

1. Yes YK is still the only successful example of Gorilla AI.

2. He's already had a chance with a much younger female(Bambuti from Melbourne) and he's not interested. Although this technique is useful sometimes, I think he's already proved its a waste of time in this case.

3. Agreed, he will continue to breed with Kahilli (provided his testicular operation doesn't make him infertile)

4. My opinion is for them to split the group- keeping YK and Kahilli as one pair, and bring in a new male for the three nonbreeding females.

5. IF YK's son Mapema starts to breed successfully at Duisburg, then YK could be removed completely from this situation in due course- but rehoming him would still be very difficult.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Regarding communications. Jersey Zoo or rather the Durrell Institute now has a fully refurbished website (Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust - Protecting Endangered Animals Worldwide). You can now dig out with a little good will all the news titbits under About Durrell in the news section.

The annual report bongorob gave us can now also be viewed under Conservation in the "Where we Work" section.

It is miles better than the old site!