ZSL London Zoo London lose Baby Gorilla

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Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Sorry to bring bad tidings but London have lost their baby Gorilla. He was injured during an introduction of the whole(?) group and had to be removed for surgery from which he didn't recover. On Wednesday the 'new' male Kesho met Mjuku and the baby directly for the first time and the introduction went well apparently, but yesterday, it was a different story.:(

There is a link in the Sealion thread or type in 'London baby Gorilla dies'
 
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This is no big surprise. It was extremely unlikely that they would manage to introduce him to Kesho without getting harmed. Actually, I was surprised that he was not taken away for handraising when Kesho arrived so late that tricking him into believing that the baby was his own couldn`t work.

As far as I know, such a situation has never worked out ok before - adult or near-adult males have injured and killed infants who were much older then "Tiny". For example, the last baby of the famous Apenheul "Bongo" was already two when the new male Jambo was introduced and he had to be taken awy from his mother.
 
Yassa said:
This is no big surprise. It was extremely unlikely that they would manage to introduce him to Kesho without getting harmed. Actually, I was surprised that he was not taken away for handraising when Kesho arrived so late that tricking him into believing that the baby was his own couldn`t work.
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As you say it was always going to be a difficult situation to overcome. There have been several previous instances of babies being injured or killed during these kinds of introductions.

The only positive thing is they can now/sooner put the adults together and Mjuku will almost certainly quickly become pregnant again, this time by the current leader.
 
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That the first introduction went well seems to indicate that the silverback`s aggression isn`t always directly aimed towards the baby, but more a result of a generally tense/aggressive situation. I`ve often wondered what exactly makes a usually laid-back and gentle silverback killing babys - is it in their genes to be specificlly aggressive against the infants of other males, or are the killings more like collateral damage?

It doesn`t change the result, though...
 
Yassa said:
Tht the first introduction went well seems to indicate that the silverback`s aggression isn`t always directly aimed towards the baby, but more a result of a generally tense/aggressive situation. It doesn`t change the result, though...
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I think that is nearly always the case. There's fighting between the
male and the females, and the baby gets injured or killed in the process. I'm not sure males deliberately seek to harm infants in these situations, at least not in a lot of them, but yes, the end result is the same.
 
This is such a shame - it was only last night that I was talking about how well gorillas in the UK seemed to be breeding over the last 12ish months (London, Blackpool, Twycross, PL and I'd hazard a guess Howletts have had one?)

I don't know if that is well, but it certainly seemed the majority of UK collections with breeding situation gorillas had succeeded in breeding them.
 
Javan Rhino said:
but it certainly seemed the majority of UK collections with breeding situation gorillas had succeeded in breeding them.
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Yes there have been births, but there are a similar or larger number of females which aren't breeding in some of these zoos (excluding Howletts/PL) Have a look at the recent lists in the 'Gorillas in Europe' thread if you want further details of how it all breaks down.
 
So sad, I am sure the primate staff are all devastated.

Hope they can now go forward with full introductions towards a group situation.
 
Such a pity!
The staff must be devastated after all the care and trouble they have taken with the introductions.

Alan
 
Yet more terrible news from London's gorillas. How horrible. My thoughts are also with everyone involved.
 
Pertinax said:
Yes there have been births, but there are a similar or larger number of females which aren't breeding in some of these zoos (excluding Howletts/PL) Have a look at the recent lists in the 'Gorillas in Europe' thread if you want further details of how it all breaks down.
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A two week old baby gorilla at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent, UK, which has become the 130th born at the Aspinall Foundation's two wildlife parks.
 
How sad. London don't seem to have had much luck with their Gorillas since this new exhibit opened.
 
Bwassa said:
How sad. London don't seem to have had much luck with their Gorillas since this new exhibit opened.
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Let me re-iterate once more the recent tidings from ZSL/R.P. where gorillas is concerned has nothing whatsoever to do with the exhibit.

It has been medical, social and grouping (in nature and nothing else). With every gorilla introduction there is a fracas in terms of group dynamics and who is boss and madam. It is just so bloody unfortunate.
 
Very sad news indeed. My thoughts are with the zoo, the keepers and the group. What terrible luck.
 
So terribly sad ..... though not a huge surprise. The team must feel devastated but I'm sure they'd have taken all possible care to ensure the introduction was as safe as could possibly be. The only way it could have been avoided would have been if the baby had never been introduced to to the male at all which clearly wasn't viable long term so at some point it had to be tried.
 
Don't blame Kesho. As far as I can see he seems to be a good male and future groupleader.

Never let enter these youngsters to an unrelated adult male. The past shows many incidents like this one.

It happened with the male Lukas, although the youngster survived. It happened with the male Bongo.
 
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