Here's a brief history for you of Zaire's male companions at London.
1. Kumba(owned by Chessington). Zaire bred with Kumba. Her only baby. Later Kumba seemed to lose interest in both females (Zaire & Salome) and was transferred back to Chessington.( he is still there)
2. Jeremiah(ex Bristol) Useless, desocialised(handraised) male. Came from Bristol with female 'Diana' who had many offspring(failed) by J's mother-reared older brother(and father!!) Daniel. Jeremiah didn't mate, and suffered inbreeding traits. After several years he was transferred to Belfast where he later died.
3. Jomie (born to ZSL female Lomie at Howletts, so he was owned by ZSL) Good male, mated as soon as introduced and should have bred with London females but instead he died from Hepatitis B after two years. A stressful time for the London Gorillas as they were all knocked out frequently for Hepatitis testing and inoculations. Hardly surprising there were no pregnancies.
4. Jock(born La Palmyre) Jock and Zaire actually got on very well- though he was incompatable with one of the two recently added old (Ex Dvur Kralov) females(Messy) and ended up being seperated from them both, and living with just Zaire (Diana had died). Because this didn't constitute a group, after only a year or so he was transferred to Bristol. I think Zaire may well have bred with him if they had stayed together longer...
5. Bongo/Bobby(ex Rome/Bristol) Exchanged with Jock. I don't know if he ever mated with Zaire or if she was dominant over him, but he had dominance problems until the two old females were returned to Dvur, and certainly nothing happened during his five years with Zaire.
6. Yeboah... watch this space.
Romina was indeed a big success story at Bristol- pregnant, successful birth & rearing for the first time at the advanced age of 21. A very similar past history/age to 'Asante' (23) at Twycross which is why I am still hopeful for her(asante)
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