Lowland gorillas in Europe

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Lowland Gorillas demise.

My first contribution so please excuse if I have posted it in the wrong thread. I visited Twycross this weekend and was distressewd to hear of the deaths of several of their Lowland Gorillas. Following in Mamfi's steps last year, Tye died a few weeks ago, followed by his partner (whose name escapes me) . Within the last week or so Ozala's infant (who was about six months old) died and a few days ago, Eva. These events were apparently all unrelated and leaves the two Twycross groups sadly depleted.
 
Welcome Tamu. From the title in this thread, you appear to have posted in the right place. Nice to hearfrom you, but about such Bad news!
 
Tamu said:
My first contribution so please excuse if I have posted it in the wrong thread. I visited Twycross this weekend and was distressewd to hear of the deaths of several of their Lowland Gorillas. Following in Mamfi's steps last year, Tye died a few weeks ago, followed by his partner (whose name escapes me) . Within the last week or so Ozala's infant (who was about six months old) died and a few days ago, Eva. These events were apparently all unrelated and leaves the two Twycross groups sadly depleted.
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Hi and Welcome. There is a 'UK Gorilla update' thread in the UK zoos section if you can find it- but this is equally good.

Ti/Sekondi died in February.
I'm not sure which gorilla you mean by 'his partner'- I think you may be referring to SamSAm's partner 'Yinka' who died in January?

The two recent losses of 'Ndoki' and 'Eva' are also sad. 'Ndoki' died of malnutrition I heard- possibly it could have been due to Ozala's milk supply drying up caused by her stress at having no male in the group.
'Eva' was 34. She died the day before Molly Badham did... Eva's only offspring is the adult female Asante who has so far never bred.

Twycross urgently need to reconsider their gorilla arrangements now. A new male could certainly be obtained for Ozala and Asante as, sadly, there is now no small baby to worry about during an introduction.
 
Pertinax said:
Twycross urgently need to reconsider their gorilla arrangements now. A new male could certainly be obtained for Ozala and Asante as, sadly, there is now no small baby to worry about during an introduction.
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Well sometimes, just sometimes .. these sad events can be a blessing in disguise. It is now or never as far as putting serious gorilla breeding on the map for Twycross. A new silverback + a third experienced female breeder and Twycross could have a stable well socialised family on their hands. Perhaps a a young Bekesbourne born gorilla female .....???
 
jelle said:
Well sometimes, just sometimes .. these sad events can be a blessing in disguise. It is now or never as far as putting serious gorilla breeding on the map for Twycross. A new silverback + a third experienced female breeder and Twycross could have a stable well socialised family on their hands. Perhaps a a young Bekesbourne born gorilla female .....???
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Yes, I was thinking along the same lines....;)

But Twycross are usually slow to act(e.g. elephants??) and this bad situation could just stay as it is for a long while yet... I've heard they will consider getting a 'young' male for the two females Asante and Ozala. This would probably be because Ozala's small son Matadi is still in this group- he's now valuable genetically as the only offspring of Ti.

Of course, they could alternatively just make a single group comprising SamSam(the old Edinburgh male who is also Ti's father) plus the four remaining females.(Bongo, Biddy, Asante & Ozala + young Matadi) But its doubtful he's a breeder anymore so it wouldn't help there..
 
I am all for drastic measures .. here :D Only a new young adult silverback will do.

Let Samsam grapple with the older 2 females only. :rolleyes:
 
jelle said:
I am all for drastic measures .. here :D Only a new young adult silverback will do.

Let Samsam grapple with the older 2 females only. :rolleyes:
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SamSam looks a lot older than he is(he's 34) and I don't think he does much grappling ;) BUT he has mated the female Biddy- though nothing has come of it( at least yet)

Maybe the EEP will now recommend a new male for Ozala and Asante? Could it be 'Kumbuka?- now in Paignton group- he is right age- 10 years- and not related to Twycross animals at all. They want a young male because 4 year old 'Matadi(Ti's only son) is living with Ozala and Asante. There are plenty of other males in Howletts too.
 
Makulla.

Frankfurt Zoo's oldest female Gorilla 'Makulla', died recently, possibly in mid October. She was 51 years old.

Makulla arrived at Frankfurt in 1956 as a tiny baby just a few months old and was reared in the home of the (then) zoo director, the famous Bernard Gzimek. She later had several offspring with three different males- Abraham, Solomon and Matz. She was also mother to the first pair of gorilla twins to be reared in a zoo, but like all her babies, they were handreared.

It seems she has been outlived by her longterm partner 'Matz' who is probably the oldest gorilla in Europe now.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
There is now a picture of Guy on the London zoo site. It is of when he first arrived. For anyone interested.....
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Which reminds me... sometime about 1960, London Zoo exhibited all three forms/subspecies of Gorilla- 'Guy' being the Western Lowland, while they had two babies 'Meng' -Eastern Lowland, and 'Reuben'- 'true' Mountain. Sadly the two babies did not survive long, though 'Guy' of course soldiered on for many years to come. I don't think any other zoo can claim this- unless Antwerp's current female 'Amahoro' also turns out to be of the 'berengei'(mountain) species.
 
Nuremburg Zoo's male Fritz.

I was going to ask- has anyone heard that Nurenberg's old male 'Fritz' has passed away? On ISIS they are listed as only 0.3 gorillas now, not 1.3 as previously.:confused: 'Fritz' is, or was, pretty old- in the World's 'top 50' oldest gorillas list.

Is he dead, or still alive?
 
There is nothing on the zoo`s website about a gorilla death and there hasn`t been aynthing in the german media - at least I couldn`t found anything. So I guess it`s just an ISIS mistake and he is still alive. Will let you know if I find out more.

2 gorilla births happened in Germany in the last 2 weeks: female Changa in Münster gave birth to a baby of unkown gender while Kathi in Hannover Zoo gave birth to a female baby yesterday. The father is again Buzandi from Melbourne. It`s Kathi`s 4th child and she is a very attentive mother, so all is looking very wlel for the baby. Changa in contrary is very young and her first baby died a year ago after being injured in a fight between members of the group. Hopefully Changa learned from that terrible experience and will be able to protect her new baby better.
 
Yassa said:
There is nothing on the zoo`s website about a gorilla death and there hasn`t been aynthing in the german media - at least I couldn`t found anything. So I guess it`s just an ISIS mistake and he is still alive. Will let you know if I find out more.

Changa in contrary is very young and her first baby died a year ago after being injured in a fight between members of the group.
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Thanks. I looked too but couldn't find any mention of this so I'm presuming its an error too.

Changa's first baby was a sad loss, specially as it was female. I think the male was still in that 'stroppy' phase they often go through as blackbacks when they are not really 'competent' enough to be proper fathers. I hope things go better this time.
 
There is an article in the german press about Mapema in Duisburg. He is doing very well and has already mated with Safiri who is now his favourite! The keepers hope he`ll mate with Vizuri (his cousin...) soon too.
 
I knew that he wouldn't let me down..:) Its that all important mother- rearing. This is an excellent start. I hadn't realised 'Vizuri' is his cousin but that's certainly correct- her father Ngola (Zurich) is an older brother of Mapema's mother H.Kahili- both born Jersey(Jambo x Npongo)
 
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