taun
Well-Known Member
Ah so they were waiting for a birth.
Lowland gorillas in Europe 2009
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Ah so they were waiting for a birth.
Please keep us updated...
Dorle has never bred before so this would be an unsual, but very interesting event.Do you only think she`s pregnant because she has a big belly? Then I am sure she is not, that is normal for older females.
Bad news from Frankfurt - Ruby (10) had her first infant some days ago and it was killed immediately by father Viatu (also 10). The 2 were still seperated by the rest of the group because of agressions (mainly between Viatu and Rebecca and her sons). And now even more bad news, Ruby died too from an inflammation in the intestines.
Bad news from Frankfurt - Ruby (10) had her first infant some days ago and it was killed immediately by father Viatu (also 10). The 2 were still seperated by the rest of the group because of agressions (mainly between Viatu and Rebecca and her sons). And now even more bad news, Ruby died too from an inflammation in the intestines.
These are the perils of bringing in a young male like Viatu (though genetically I am pleased to see this linkup) At that young age they are often bullies and irresponsible with babies.
I think Viatu should be allowed to settle down and grow up a bit before they add any more females. I'm sure they can reconstruct a group around him in time.
I think what you are saying is Dorle seems suddenly to have a bigger belly which makes you wonder if she is pregnant. Its not impossible but given her age and past lack of breeding (though at Duisburg the male was at fault.) I think it is rather unlikely.
I think what you are saying is Dorle seems suddenly to have a bigger belly which makes you wonder if she is pregnant. Its not impossible but given her age and past lack of breeding (though at Duisburg the male was at fault.) I think it is rather unlikely.
I would be highly sceptical at her breeding potential. She - to me - is like Bangka in Amsterdam who was basically bulging belly and "looked the pregnant part", but really never was.
For now, it is at best highly speculative. If you would like to be for sure ask the keepers what the status is with breeding the gorillas. I am confident they will be more than happy to respond and tell you quite a bit you never would have learned otherwise.
new male for Twycross
A new male Gorilla has finally arrived at Twycross and been introduced to the younger group (Asante,Ozala & Matadi) No one on here seems sure of his identity yet but he has come from the Port Lympne groups. See Twycross (UK) thread for discussion.
A 2nd male, Boulas, is also expected shortly from Belfast. He will join the two oldest Twycross females, Bongo & Biddy.
A new male Gorilla has finally arrived at Twycross and been introduced to the younger group (Asante,Ozala & Matadi) No one on here seems sure of his identity yet but he has come from the Port Lympne groups. See Twycross (UK) thread for discussion.
A 2nd male, Boulas, is also expected shortly from Belfast. He will join the two oldest Twycross females, Bongo & Biddy.
Gorilla news:
Gigi, one of the oldest gorillas in captivity, has died in Berlin Zoo. She was 51 (I think). Her companion Fatou, 52, remains behind - the 2 have lived seperate from the harem group in the last years.
Atanga, young silverback, born in St. Martin La Pleine, who lived last in Bossiere du Dore, seems to have died too - at least he is listed as dead on the online gorilla studbook from JR Davis. He was genetically important, bt I don`t think he had ever bred, being handraised with chimps and having never seen a female gorilla in his life because he lived in an all-male-group after intanthood.
Gigi, one of the oldest gorillas in captivity, has died in Berlin Zoo. She was 51 (I think). Her companion Fatou, 52, remains behind - the 2 have lived seperate from the harem group in the last years.
Atanga, young silverback, born in St. Martin La Pleine, who lived last in Bossiere du Dore, seems to have died too - at least he is listed as dead on the online gorilla studbook from JR Davis. He was genetically important, bt I don`t think he had ever bred, being handraised with chimps and having never seen a female gorilla in his life because he lived in an all-male-group after intanthood.
Atanga's father was TamTam (another son of the prolific Bitam), born at Howletts. He has never bred and he probably never would, given his background. If this is correct, when Yeboah goes to London, it appears La Boissiere will only have two males, the older 'Vomito' and younger 'Nbia' until some more arrive(from Vallee de Singes perhaps?).
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Hi Pertinax,
I think N`Bia died some time ago and as a consequence, the surviving brother N`Dowe was sent back to Stuttgart and nursed back to health before he was moved to Paignton. Seems a lot went wrong with gorillas in Bossiere..
Gorilla Goma celebrated her 50th birthday today in Basle - she`s the first gorilla born in Europe and the second worldwide, daugther of the famous pair Stefi and Achilla and a sister to famous Jambo/Jersey.
Here is an article in german:
news.ch - Zoo Basel feiert 50. Geburi der Gorilladame Goma - Boulevard, Tiere
The article also mentions that in 2010, the great ape facilities will be greatly enlarged and outdoor areas will be added. Indoors, the room for the apes will be doubled (from 340 to 700 m²), and outdoor areas of 2000 m² will be added. It is not mentioned if all 3 species of ape will get their own outdoor enclosure - I doubt it, because there is not really space for that in the small Basle zoo. If I remember right, sometime ago it was mentioned that the species might be rotated. The visitor area in the ape house is HUGE and I guess a big part of that will be added to the cages.
I think N`Bia died some time ago and as a consequence, the surviving brother N`Dowe was sent back to Stuttgart and nursed back to health before he was moved to Paignton. Seems a lot went wrong with gorillas in Bossiere..
Gorilla Goma celebrated her 50th birthday today in Basle - she`s the first gorilla born in Europe and the second worldwide, daugther of the famous pair Stefi and Achilla and a sister to famous Jambo/Jersey.
Here is an article in german:
news.ch - Zoo Basel feiert 50. Geburi der Gorilladame Goma - Boulevard, Tiere
The article also mentions that in 2010, the great ape facilities will be greatly enlarged and outdoor areas will be added. Indoors, the room for the apes will be doubled (from 340 to 700 m²), and outdoor areas of 2000 m² will be added. It is not mentioned if all 3 species of ape will get their own outdoor enclosure - I doubt it, because there is not really space for that in the small Basle zoo. If I remember right, sometime ago it was mentioned that the species might be rotated. The visitor area in the ape house is HUGE and I guess a big part of that will be added to the cages.
1. That means Vimoto is alone at present if Atanga has died.
2. Goma 50, wow... I always felt a bit sad for her- only one offspring(Tamtam) as she didn't breed with anybody except her brother Jambo- yet she raised TamTam herself as a good mother.
3. I've seen a plan somewhere on Basel's website and it does show outside enclosures to be built for all three species. It shows an area where some nearby enclosures like the Bear Pits, will be demolished to make more room. Good to hear the indoor enclosures will be enlarged too
- the Gorillas look very cramped nowadays in theirs. They can extend these cages forwards into that enormous viewing hall, quite easily as you said.
Gigit
Well-Known Member
I mentioned this in my recent post on an Apenheul thread and I haven't been able to find the answer on other Apenheul threads: while at the gorilla feeding presentation a week or so ago, I noticed a gorilla who stayed at the back of the group and kept shaking its limbs, rubbing its head and behaving oddly. I don't know any Dutch so the commentary went over my head. Does anyone know anything about him/her?
Any information about the other gorillas would be interesting too, though I have read about Jambo on the forum.
Any information about the other gorillas would be interesting too, though I have read about Jambo on the forum.
Apenheul Gorillas. Potted History
They started a long while back(1975) with two males and six(?) females all of them young wild caught ones. The slightly older male(Balu)was later sent to La Palmyre in France- he was the father of Jock, the current breeding male at Bristol. The other male 'Bongo' became Apenheul's original breeding male and has very many children by the various original females-these include 4 daughters still living in the group. At one time the group numbered about 20 but when Bongo died, they removed various animals, including 4 young males which are now at Safari Beekes Bergen, so the group then stood at about nine before adding the new male Jambo(from Krefeld) Earlier still they also formed a 2nd group which was later sent to Sydney, Australia- the Bonobos now live where they did(the island, not the house) Another little subgroup headed by Makulla, one of Bongo's sons, lives in excellent modern surroundings plus big outdoor island at GaiaPark, Kerkrade.
Fast forward to the present. There have been several transfers but one or two of the original females are still in the group, including 'Mandji', a large black female who has successfully reared about eight offspring. She currently has another- a two year old 'son'(Mapassa) but this one in fact may be the baby of a subordinate female(Kisiwa) from whom Mandji stole the baby (when it was born during the night) when she herself was still pregnant(if so then her own baby which was discovered in her nest one morning a few days later was either born dead or died at birth, nobody is sure) They know the dead baby was Mandji's(by DNA test) but haven't proved for sure that Mapassa is Kisiwa's. The younger female 'Kisiwa' has since had another baby in the group now.
I don't know which Gorilla might have been behaving oddly at the rear of the group- maybe an Apenheul 'regular' will recognise the description though. At one time they had a brain-damaged male called 'Dibo' which was born there. He had been bitten/wounded during a fight when he was a baby and was partially paralysed as a result. He did grow to adulthood but eventually they had to put him down.
They started a long while back(1975) with two males and six(?) females all of them young wild caught ones. The slightly older male(Balu)was later sent to La Palmyre in France- he was the father of Jock, the current breeding male at Bristol. The other male 'Bongo' became Apenheul's original breeding male and has very many children by the various original females-these include 4 daughters still living in the group. At one time the group numbered about 20 but when Bongo died, they removed various animals, including 4 young males which are now at Safari Beekes Bergen, so the group then stood at about nine before adding the new male Jambo(from Krefeld) Earlier still they also formed a 2nd group which was later sent to Sydney, Australia- the Bonobos now live where they did(the island, not the house) Another little subgroup headed by Makulla, one of Bongo's sons, lives in excellent modern surroundings plus big outdoor island at GaiaPark, Kerkrade.
Fast forward to the present. There have been several transfers but one or two of the original females are still in the group, including 'Mandji', a large black female who has successfully reared about eight offspring. She currently has another- a two year old 'son'(Mapassa) but this one in fact may be the baby of a subordinate female(Kisiwa) from whom Mandji stole the baby (when it was born during the night) when she herself was still pregnant(if so then her own baby which was discovered in her nest one morning a few days later was either born dead or died at birth, nobody is sure) They know the dead baby was Mandji's(by DNA test) but haven't proved for sure that Mapassa is Kisiwa's. The younger female 'Kisiwa' has since had another baby in the group now.
I don't know which Gorilla might have been behaving oddly at the rear of the group- maybe an Apenheul 'regular' will recognise the description though. At one time they had a brain-damaged male called 'Dibo' which was born there. He had been bitten/wounded during a fight when he was a baby and was partially paralysed as a result. He did grow to adulthood but eventually they had to put him down.
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Gigit
Well-Known Member
Thanks, very interesting. One of the females had a very small baby, casually hanging asleep over her arm for a while, and she kept to the edge of the group while the feeding was going on. The keepers made sure everyone got some food - some Olympic standard throwing going on!
It's good to see a gorilla family in action when you're more used to seeing a bachelor group.
It's good to see a gorilla family in action when you're more used to seeing a bachelor group.
That was probably Kisiwa as I think her 2nd(?) baby was quite recent.
The Apenheul group are good because they have plenty of space to move around and they can be seen as a proper group together. At zoos with small groups in a smaller area (such as Bristol or Twycross for example) you don't see much real group behaviour as the animals sit apart from each other for much of the time and don't interact very much. The exception in the UK of course is Howletts/Port Lympne.
A male group is not really a 'group' at all. Its several males stuck in close proximity.
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