Lowland gorillas in Europe 2009

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This Saturday has come to Bioparc Valencia "Kabuli" from Frankfurt, and in a few weeks will come "Thomas" from Rotterdam.
 
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More gorilla news:

In Hannover, Josy has given birth to her 3rd infant, probably a male, father is Buzandi from Melbourne. Her first was stillborn, the second died after a few months due to maternal neglect, and hopefully everything will go all right this time. Apparently, she is caring a lot better for her baby now, seems she has learned what she needed to learn.

According to apenheul`s latest newsletter, their 8 year old female Zoesi (Bongo x Lobo) will go to Barcelona Zoo soon, to teach their handraised females to be a gorilla. I am not happy about this - it must be terrible for a gorilla who has grown up in Apenheul to live in the small, pretty barren enclosures in Barcelona, and they already have 3 young females living with their non-breeding male, 2 handraised but one from Zurich and mother-raised. I don`t see why they need another female.
 
john said:
Which gorillas are present in Barcelona?
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Two groups;

1. male Xebo.(born Rotterdam: Ernst x Xara)
females; Makinda, Virunga(both daughters of Snowflake)
young; 0.1 Ntua(Xebo x Virunga) 1.0 Ngoro(Xebo x Makinda)

2. male Awali (born Amsterdam; Tembo x Dafina; handreared & from bachelor group).
females; Yangu(from Zurich; Ngola x Nache)
Batanga( at Barcelona; Xebo x Kena)
Muni( at Barcelona; Xebo x Makinda)

Adding another female to Awali's group seems pointless as he does not seem to breed. Rather he needs replacing?
 
Maybe Awali will be replaced by Badongo. It seems that his move has been decided already. Awali can go to Valencia.
 
The move from Zoesie to Barca will be cause Apendoorn received or will be receiving a female from Barca. It is a part of exchange.
 
The males that has moved to Valencia are Kabuli from Frankfurt and Thomas from Rotterdam.
 
john said:
Maybe Awali will be replaced by Badongo. It seems that his move has been decided already. Awali can go to Valencia.
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There doesn't seem much point in Barcelona exchanging a female with Apenheul while nonbreeder male Awali is there. Maybe Badongo will now replace him?
 
Thank you so much KEEPER for keeping an eye on our Thomas!:) Hope to hear good news and see pictures of our friend in a few months time, when he is settled in. I hope he will be great friends with Kabuli, because this young guy deserves a better future in Valencia after his bad experience with Viatu in Frankfurt!!:)
 
Thomas

Thank you so much John! I read the article about the arrival of Thomas and Kabuli and saw the short video! So good to see! I immediately added the Bioparc Valencia Facebook page to my account because there is a lot of interesting information there.

Thank you again John! BEDANKT!:)
 
Yeboah, London's new male, finally arrived at ZSL from La Boissiere du Dore on 27th November.
 
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A fine animal. I think when he is introduced to the females he will quickly take control. He is after all a fully socialised gorilla (even though not a silverback ..., when together with females of his own ... he will swiftly adapt to the silverback growth process). I am now more than confident it will finally get done .... Even a slight tinkling that the old female Zaire might even be tempted to have another baby ... ;)
 
Yes, a good summary of the situation. I imagine he will become silverbacked shortly as he establishes his dominance over three willing females.

Zaire certainly is not too old to have more babies- some Howletts females still breed into their forties. However, Zaire has only bred once, in 1987 (female Kamili, now at Belfast) which is probably due to poor group dynamic and succession of males they have had at London since then. So after so many years(22) of no reproduction,there must be a big question mark about her fertility now...
 
Pertinax said:
Yes, a good summary of the situation. I imagine he will become silverbacked shortly as he establishes his dominance over three willing females.

Zaire certainly is not too old to have more babies- some Howletts females still breed into their forties. However, Zaire has only bred once, in 1987 (female Kamili, now at Belfast) which is probably due to poor group dynamic and succession of males they have had at London since then. So after so many years(22) of no reproduction,there must be a big question mark about her fertility now...
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Thanks Pertinax,

I was aware of her breeding stats and history. I all put that down to sub optimal enclosure and breeding companions (she ran out of luck with her fellow female group member when the first silverback unexpectedly died, the ensuing candidates never socialised well with Zaire and her companion). It is true that 22 years is a big time-frame and perhaps a little far-fetched ... But as you said miracles do happen (example: the Rome female at Bristol)!!!
 
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