Melbourne Zoo Julia the gorilla

Interesting article. I was unaware of Julia's background prior to her return to the Abuko reserve in the Gambia.

I think Otana, still fairly young and inexperienced as a silverback, found himself in a stressful situation and redirected his aggression toward her out of frustration for her not deferring and doing what he wanted.:(
 
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Thank you very much Monty rfor sharing this most intresting article !
In 1982 I followed every news-item about Julia at the time she was in the Netherlands. Coundless articles, news-paper cuttings and published photos still are in my archive and I remember TV-items at the time she was send to the Gambia.
Afther that I lost her track and therefor I found it very intresting to see what happened futher with her.
What a sad story but luckily she seemed to have had a nice period of her live at Melbourne and hope she will now find her peace, RIP Julia !
 
vogelcommando said:
What a sad story but luckily she seemed to have had a nice period of her live at Melbourne and hope she will now find her peace, RIP Julia !
Click to expand...

I imagine her years at Melbourne with both Motaba and Rigo were pretty stress free. She was obviously compatible, and bred, with Motaba whom she had known from his infancy back in their days at Jersey, while Rigo was a much older and laidback silverback by the time his turn came to head the group. The problems only seemed to surface again with the changeover to Otana.

In retrospect it would be better perhaps if Julia had gone with Motaba and his sons to Werribee, but they couldn't really foresee this outcome with the new male.
 
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