Mountain Gorillas in captivity.

[Kifaru Bwana]

I still don't think Amahoro is a true 'Beringei' Mountain Gorilla as she does not have long shaggy hair. But nor is she the same as Victoria, who is a definite Eastern Lowland. l have often wondered if she came from the Bwindi Forest in Uganda- though labelled 'Mountain Gorillas' this population is said to have characteristics of both the other races/subspecies(Graueri & Beringei).

It is now so damn easy to replicate DNA in the lab. Taking a few dung and hair samples off wild gorillas from Bwindi, Virungas and Rwanda and the nearest Eastern lowland gorilla groups and the issue would be resolved.

I still advocate sending both females back to rehab programmes in the Congo Basin. They are there now ..., and the EEP is affirmative that no new individuals will ever be integrated into the programme. There are both rehab programmes for mountain and eastern lowlands in D.R. Congo and one for mountains in Rwanda ...

I am loath the Free Willy kind and PETA ilk, but this IMO I contend is the decent thing to do.

 

[Jurek7]

I think Amahoro DNA was actually tested, and was found to be eastern lowland gorilla.

I think mountain and eastern lowland gorillas would breed in zoos just like lowland gorillas. However, there were too few of them in zoos when around 1980's zoos learned how to keep gorillas.

Can anybody update on a few graueri and beringei which are, apparently, kept in local rehabilitation centres in Africa?

Do they have any educational value? (everybody in Uganda and Rwanda knows about wild mountain gorillas, as they are one of main tourist sights).

 

[Pertinax]

He was eventually sent to Antwerp to mate with Victoria, the female bred there, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful. Antwerp originally had two pairs, but Victoria was their only offspring. In the early '70s there were a few other graueri in the States and another at Tel Aviv (if I remember rightly), but in those days it was very rare for zoos to co-operate by sending animals on breeding loan

Good shot of Mukisi. Unlike Noelle who was very overweight and with a very bad coat, Mukisi was in excellent condition as an adult.

Antwerp's two pairs were the males Kaisi and Kisubi, and females Quivu and Pega. Kaisi was either infertile or a nonbreeder, so Kisubi was used with both females. A number of babies were born but only Victoria (mother Quivu) survived- she was at least partially mother-reared and then handraised. I don't think she then saw another Gorilla until many years later when she was an adult.

The supposed 'Mountain' at Tel Aviv was a female 'Josepha'. She was later sent to Oklahoma to join the Eastern Lowland male 'Mkubwa. I saw them there and while Mkubwa was an obvious Eastern Lowland, 'Josepha' was just as clearly an ordinary WESTERN Lowland (grey coat, reddish crown, short hair etc) These two did mate but without issue. After Josepha died Mkubwa went on to Houston Zoo where he died, the last Eastern Lowland in a US Zoo.

Prior to him there were the two famous Eastern Lowland males M'Bongo & N'Gagi who lived at San Diego Zoo in the 1930/40's era. New York Bronx also had a female 'Sumaili' in the 1950-60 period who they described as a mountain Gorilla but she was in fact Eastern Lowland too. They also received a younger male 'PiliPili' -another Eastern Lowland- from Antwerp to pair with her but he was quite shortlived.

Hanover also had a male for a short time that photos clearly show was an Eastern Lowland, though he wasn't identified as such.

 

[Pertinax]

I think mountain and eastern lowland gorillas would breed in zoos just like lowland gorillas. However, there were too few of them in zoos when around 1980's zoos learned how to keep gorillas.

I think you are absolutely right on that.

The only place that had a real chance with Eastern Lowlands was Antwerp but their house was very poor/cramped and not conducive to real success.

With Mountain Gorillas, had Coco & Pucker at Cologne been a true pair, things might have been different. However, here again, the enclosure was poor and the whole fiasco represented an indictment for these animals having been removed from their homeland in the first place.

 

[TeamTapir223]

According to International Zoo Yearbook 1966 The Philadelphia Zoo's Rare Animal Conservation Center had both Western Lowland Gorillas and Mountain Gorillas when it opened in 1965.Can any shed some light on this ?

Team Tapir223

 

[FBBird]

Mountain Gorillas in Captivity

I suggest they were Eastern Lowland -- Chester thought they had Mountain Gorillas as well.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

I think Amahoro DNA was actually tested, and was found to be eastern lowland gorilla.

I think mountain and eastern lowland gorillas would breed in zoos just like lowland gorillas. However, there were too few of them in zoos when around 1980's zoos learned how to keep gorillas.

Can anybody update on a few graueri and beringei which are, apparently, kept in local rehabilitation centres in Africa?

Do they have any educational value? (everybody in Uganda and Rwanda knows about wild mountain gorillas, as they are one of main tourist sights).

The Center also has an educational facility on site and has a separate page on FB.


The eastern lowland gorillas rescued in DR Congo and Rwanda have been relocated to the GRACE Center next to the Tayna Nature Reserve in DR Congo. The number sent from Goma (6) in 2011 and Kinigi in Rwanda (6) by 2011. In the intervening period 2011-2012 more gorilla infants confiscated made their way to the Center.

Currently, they have 11 Grauer's gorillas living on site as one group.

And 4 further Grauer's gorillas have been confiscated (sadly following an increase in the illegal trade in captured gorilla youngsters in DR Congo) and currently housed at a temporary location. These should be integrated at the GRACE Center soon AND this is when the Center is at capacity. The center is looking for funding to increase its capacity and is overseen by the national conservation agency ICCN and a council of zoos worldwide.

You can access it by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund pages:
The GRACE Center for Rescued Gorillas - The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Source: The GRACE Center for Rescued Gorillas - The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International

Now the Grauer's gorillas at Antwerpen Zoo could either serve as ambassadors for the in situ rehabilitation and conservation programme (given their age) or sent back to be housed with these integrated groups and one day make it back to the wilds (as has always been the plan).

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

For the mountain gorillas another location within DR Congo provides housing for confiscated orphan mountain gorillas. Their number was originally 4 confiscated and held in the orphanage and another 2 in temp accomodation pending transfer to the mountain gorilla rehab site. I think they all were taken to the Senkwekwe Center in the Virunga National Park, but I am not entirely sure. Will look into it for you!



Update on the Grauer's gorillas and GRACE Center:
In June 2013 2 gorillas confiscated were found to be Grauer's and will shortly make their way to the Center. Another wounded gorilla was found wandering the fields nearby to several wild gorilla groups and obviously the wound originated from a captive period. This one was confiscated too in July 2013 and tests are being done now to determine if it is a Grauer's lowland or a mountain. At their age it is very difficult to distinguish between both species and thus tests are instrumental (viz the Amahoro saga in Antwerpen - for which a recent poster here confirmed she is a Grauer's too).

They have a website too: Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) and please go through their blog.

 

[Pertinax]

According to International Zoo Yearbook 1966 The Philadelphia Zoo's Rare Animal Conservation Center had both Western Lowland Gorillas and Mountain Gorillas when it opened in 1965.Can any shed some light on this ?

Inaccurate recording I think- to my knowledge Philadelphia only ever had Western Lowlands in that house(despite the fancy title it was just an ordinary Ape house for Gorillas and Orangutans.)

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Mountiain gorillas: the Senkwekwe Center in the Virungas NP is their orphanage.

Four mountain gorilla orphans (1.3) were being raised at the Senkwekwe Center. Their male sadly died in July 2012 (aged 7).

Another mountain gorilla orphan Imhire ex Congo is being cared for in Rwanda and is destined for the Senkwekwe Center eventually.

I am afraid that following the increase in illegal capture more mountain gorillas may have been confiscated.
But to be sure I have to keep digging …

The website can be accessed from the Gorilla Doctors page:
The Senkwekwe Centre Campaign | gorilla.cd

 

[lintworm]

To put an end to the discussion: Antwerps gorilla Amahoro has been confirmed an eastern lowland gorilla, from the Kahuzi-Biega reserve.

source: Mitochondrial DNA Diversity in Gorillas

DNA sequence information may also be useful for subspecies identification of individual captive gorillas. Recently this D-loop hypervariable sequence was used to determine the subspecies identity of an infant female gorilla confiscated from traffickers in Zaıre. The sequence obtained from DNA isolated from shed hairs was identical to that of one of the eastern lowland gorillas from Kahuzi-Biega Preserve.

 

[Pertinax]

Re 'Amohoro'. Interesting result. I was always certain she was not a true 'Beringei' Mountain Gorilla.

 

[Hix]

Just as an aside, and completely irrelevant, but I'm re-reading Willard Price's Gorilla Adventure and it is stated on a few ocassions in the book that there are only 13 Mountain Gorillas in captivity (it was published in 1969). I'm rather surprised at such a glaring mistake, especially when no Mountain Gorillas in captivity would be an even better reason for Hal and Roger trying to capture one.



Hix

 

[Pertinax]

and it is stated on a few ocassions in the book that there are only 13 Mountain Gorillas in captivity (it was published in 1969).

Its possible that this description was actually applied to the Eastern Lowlands that were in captivity in 1968/9, plus the two true Mountain gorilla females at Cologne Zoo, and one or two others of mistaken identity(a female at Tel Aviv springs to mind) that appeared in official listings such as the International Zoo Yearbooks..

At that time there would have been;

Chester 1.1.(or 1.0)
Antwerp. 2.2.+ O.I birth.
Cologne. 0.2.(true Beringei)
Oklahoma. 1.0.
Tel Aviv. 0.1. (was actually a Western Gorilla.)
Al Oemings Game Farm( I think it was) was also falsely listed as having 'Mountain Gorillas' around then.

That's getting fairly close to the 13 total.

 

[IanRRobinson]

I suppose that logistics played a role in the fact that many Western Gorillas came out of Africa, whereas rather few Eastern animals did.

From the home ranges of Eastern Gorilla to any port was a long, awkward journey, whereas the Western species' range was within close reach of the coast of West Africa and its ports. A zoo that wanted gorillas, did not want to pay the earth, and wanted to feel confident that the animals caught would arrive back alive would very likely have sought to obtain Western Gorillas - which were in any event commoner and more easily obtained.

Not until the 1960s would air transport come of age for freight purposes, by which time it was politically awkward to get animals from Eastern Congo.

 

[gentle lemur]

Just as an aside, and completely irrelevant, but I'm re-reading Willard Price's Gorilla Adventure and it is stated on a few ocassions in the book that there are only 13 Mountain Gorillas in captivity (it was published in 1969). I'm rather surprised at such a glaring mistake, especially when no Mountain Gorillas in captivity would be an even better reason for Hal and Roger trying to capture one.

I believe that, even in 1969, there were some authorities who still thought that graueri was a synonym of beringei (in other words that all the eastern gorillas were mountain gorillas).

Alan

 

[mukisi]

Mountain Gorillas

In the January 1960 edition of the National Geographic Magazine there was an article 'Face to Face with Gorillas in Central Africa'. This is an article about 'Mountain Gorillas' and includes pictures of Noelle [Chester zoo] as an abandoned seven month waif. It was several years later when the Eastern lowland Gorillas were reclassified as seperate from the mountain gorilla.
This article is available on the CD National Geographics The 60's
The Belgian Government Institute for scientific Research had a captured group at Tshibati kept for study. They had come from the Utu area where they had been caught by Charles Cordier. Mukisi was from this group.

 

[FBBird]

Mountain Gorillas in Captivity

That would be the group that produced two captive births [one conceived in the wild, one in captivity], neither of which survived. This confirms that Sumaili, at the Bronx, and thought at the time to be a Mountain Gorilla, was in fact graueri, because she came from Cordier.
I should probably know this, but were Mbongo & Ngagi [San Diego pre-war] graueri as I suspect?

 

[Tim May]

I should probably know this, but were Mbongo & Ngagi [San Diego pre-war] graueri as I suspect?

Yes, they were eastern lowland gorillas not genuine mountain gorillas.

Along similar lines, the gorilla 'Meng' that London Zoo acquired in 1938 was then considered to be a mountain gorilla. I assume that this animal, too, was really an eastern lowland gorilla but am not certain. Does anybody know for sure?

 

[Chlidonias]

Just as an aside, and completely irrelevant, but I'm re-reading Willard Price's Gorilla Adventure and it is stated on a few ocassions in the book that there are only 13 Mountain Gorillas in captivity (it was published in 1969). I'm rather surprised at such a glaring mistake, especially when no Mountain Gorillas in captivity would be an even better reason for Hal and Roger trying to capture one.



Hix

you took Gorilla Adventure with you to Uganda? Is it your travel guide, because it may not be completely up to date?



Chlidonias