Lowland gorillas in Europe 2008

[Pertinax]

Quite a long journey then, probably best to keep him a little sedated for the trip.

I'm pretty sure 11 year old Mapema travelled from Paignton(Devon) to Duisburg, Germany last year (by road) and without being sedated.(Maybe they gave him a little 'something' though)

Formerly Gorillas were always 'knocked out' for these trips but there seems a move away from that now.

M'Tonge is joining at least two other males but I don't yet know if he's the first arrival...

 

[Jana]

M´Tonge ist the second male there, Azizi arrived on 28. August. The transport for the third male (Boulas) is still not agreed.

 

[Pertinax]

M´Tonge ist the second male there, Azizi arrived on 28. August. The transport for the third male (Boulas) is still not agreed.

Thanks. Boulas is coming from Belfast. He is much older than the other two and is very likely to keep them 'in line'. He used to be in one of the Port Lympne bachelor groups and had a reputation as a bully.

 

[Yassa]

Good news from Apenheul - young female Kiwisa gave birth to a healthy female baby yesterday in the outside enclosure. Another young female, Zoesie, is pregnant and due next spring. Father of both is Jambo from Krefeld.

 

[Pertinax]

Good news from Apenheul - young female Kiwisa gave birth to a healthy female baby yesterday in the outside enclosure.

Wasn't Kiwisa the one whose first baby was taken & is being reared by Mandji?

 

[Yassa]

Well, until dna tests can be carried out on the infant Mandji is raising, no one knows for sure if that infant was the surviving twin from Mandji or Kiwisa`s baby which had been taken away by Mandji. The latter opion certainly leaves the question of what happened to Kiwisa`s baby - so I guess the infant Mandji`s rearing was from Kiwisa. Or Kiwisa had a wrong pregnancy test or aborted her baby in a very, very early stage of the pregnancy so that the keepers didn`t notice. Which is not too likely. Thankfully, all went well this time for Kiwisa!

 

[Pertinax]

Well, until dna tests can be carried out on the infant Mandji is raising, no one knows for sure if that infant was the surviving twin from Mandji or Kiwisa`s baby which had been taken away by Mandji.

I would vote for the baby(Mapassa) really being Kisiwa's, as I've mentioned previously, I've come across a similar 'kidnap' by a pregnant, more dominant, female before. It would seem very strange for Mandji to have had twins several days apart also. Still, eventually we'll know the answer for sure.

 

[Dan]

Excuse me if this is "old news", but since you´re talking about gorillas in European zoos I must mention the brilliant site that discusses all gorilla exhibits in German zoos:

Gorillas in Germany - a review on the last ten years and an outlook to the future

If you have not seen it: it is absolutely fantastic! Very, very informative and lots of great pictures!

 

[docend24]

Just a small update about Prague troop (as we discussed it a little bit in the previous thread):

Shinda (ex Taronga female) is now on diet to lose 10-16kg, all fruit is substituted by vagetables and keppers are trying to prevent staling food from others. She is a bit overweigth with 106 kg, when live cameras were installed few years ago, because of The Revealed project, zoo realized she was getting up at nights and going to have a second dinner. They are going to redesign ropes and nets to encourage more climbing (more moving respectively). They think her weight problems could be the last thing why she didn't become pregnant yet (overworking contraceptive pill is probably not a reason anymore). Aside that everything is ok, except some Kijivu is having some intestinal problems.

Current troop:

Adults:
m Richard
f Shinda*
f Kijivu* (Shinda's younger half-sister)
f Kamba* wild born

Offsprings:
f Moja (Richard x Kijivu)
m Tatu (Richard x Kijivu)

*all thress females experienced the floods in 2002

 

[Pertinax]

new gorilla at Bristol Zoo.

New young female(Kera) has arrived from the Stuttgart Nursery to join their social group. See Bristol thread in UK zoos for further details...

 

[Yassa]

Viatu/Basle (Faddama x Pepe) is going to become the new breeding male in Frankfurt, after Matze`s death a few weeks ago. I think that`s a good decision - he has grown up in a good social situation, has already sired an infant, and he is not directly from the overrepresented Jersey line while his wildborn father had just very few offspring and one of them is breeding outside Basle Zoo.

 

[Pertinax]

Viatu/Basle (Faddama x Pepe) is going to become the new breeding male in Frankfurt, after Matze`s death a few weeks ago.

I think he became the favourite. In my opinion he's certainly a much better choice than the hand-reared male 'Atanga'.

It will be the first time there's been any direct link-up between the two long established groups at Basel & Frankfurt.

 

[Yassa]

Gorilla news from Europe:

- Viatu has just arrived in Frankfurt and it seems he settles in well
- the first gorilla born in Duisburg is a female
- second gorilla born in Duisburg just a few days ago, gender still unknown, mother is Safiri - Rigo`s second grandchild!
- male gorilla born in La Valle des Singes in France, mother Moseka, father Yaounde. Its Yaoundes 8th offspring, all alive, and Moseka`s third son. Given that all gorillas at La Valle des Singes are genetically extremely important, it doesn`t matter that 5 of the 8 are males so far!

 

[Pertinax]

- the first gorilla born in Duisburg is a female
- second gorilla born in Duisburg just a few days ago, gender still unknown, mother is Safiri - Rigo`s second grandchild!

Safiri is mother of the first Duisburg baby. So the mother of the latest one must be either 'Vizuri' or 'Momo'(most likely Vizuri as I think Momo is suspect...) Mapema's move to Duisburg was just what they needed.

 

[Yassa]

You are certainly right, the mother of the new baby is Vizuri. Mapema has mated with Momo too so the zoo is hoping for a third baby (at least this is what the press relaese says), but I have no information how realistic this is. I guess Viatu will produce babys in Frankfurt in a similar speed!

 

[Pertinax]

. Mapema has mated with Momo too so the zoo is hoping for a third baby (at least this is what the press relaese says), but I have no information how realistic this is.

'Momo' was born and handreared at Stuttgart. She later joined Edinburgh's small group for some years but never became pregnant there. I don't know if it was her fault or the male SamSam- he's not a very virile male. It would be good if Mapema succeeeded with her too.

 

[Pertinax]

I guess Viatu will produce babys in Frankfurt in a similar speed!

The two females at Frankfurt that 'Viatu' could breed with are 'Dian' and 'Ruby' but I don't think they ever bred with Matz so not sure if they have any problems. They may do better with a different male now.
'Rebecca',their only breeding female of recent years,is still rearing Matz's last son. 'Jule'(born 1965) is 38 & probably too old to breed now(but don't count her out completely!)

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

The two females at Frankfurt that 'Viatu' could breed with are 'Dian' and 'Ruby' but I don't think they ever bred with Matz so not sure if they have any problems. They may do better with a different male now.
'Rebecca',their only breeding female of recent years,is still rearing Matz's last son. 'Jule'(born 1965) is 38 & probably too old to breed now(but don't count her out completely!)

Pertinax,

I think both the aforementioned were Apenheul born and bred females. I really think that Matze was something of a disaster with anyone else but Rebecca. A sort of one woman show ...

I sincerely hope with Viatu - a socially very adept young male - will change all that and turn out to be a much better breeding male and silverback to his family.

 

[Pertinax]

Pertinax,

I really think that Matze was something of a disaster with anyone else but Rebecca. A sort of one woman show ...

I sincerely hope with Viatu - a socially very adept young male - will change all that and turn out to be a much better breeding male and silverback to his family.

What happened is fairly typical in long established groups with no change of male. When Matz was a much younger animal, he did breed with the original females in the group and has a number of offspring from them to prove it..(dublin's male Horst is an earlier son of his) But over time and as they all got older, he lost interest and stopped mating with them. Frankfurt later added the younger females and he was still breeding with the younger 'Rebecca' right up to the end.

Dian & Ruby were both born at Arnhem Zoo but joined the Frankfurt group from Munich & Leipzig zoos respectively. Hopef0ully 'Viatu' will take an interest and get them breeding too(which Matz didn't manage...)

 

[Yassa]

I`ve heard that Rebecca has played her part in stopping Matze from developing an interest in Dian too - she was jealous. Ruby, on the other hand, had been mated by Matze serveral times if I remember correctly. I hope these two will breed with Viatu while Rebecca already has more then enough sons! Matze could have sired many more infants, but honestly, I am happy that there are "only" the 18, he is already overrepresented in Europe and in my opinion, too many of his sons have a breeding group (Damisi, Akili, Rick, Horst!), with Derrick siring serveral offspring before his death and daugthers Inge, Liesl, Lia and Changa breeding too.