ZSL London Zoo new gorilla alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cheetahgirl]

a 12 year old gorilla called yeboah has arrived at LZ after a long journey from france. he has joined zaire, effie and jookie, who have been wihout a male since bob (bobby) died in december 2008. why did they wait so long?

 

[CZJimmy]

It's not neccesarily a case of London waiting to replace Bongo (Bobby) after his death, they may well have had to wait on the EEP studbook holder to source a suitable male.

If you're interested, this subject has been discussed previously when Yeboah first arrived a few months back, so that thread may be of use to you

 

[Pacu]

Press release

I think there was a press release yesterday that gave the impression he had only just arrived, there was also a mention of possible pregnancies, which was probably the real point of the story. There was a photo in the Metro today showing him out on the grass with the others.

 

[Pertinax]

Yeboah arrived in London on 27th(?) November but its taken them three months to get him in with all three females, much of it behind the scenes, so I guess this is his formal 'Debut'. The photos and a video I saw of him outside do show him to be remarkably un-developed for his age (he is now 13 years old, born January 1997) probably because as they said, he was living with a slightly older silverback(Vimoto) in France which has suppressed his development(not his growth)- though this doesn't always happen. The good news is they also say he has already been mating two of the females (presumably Mjuku & Effie) -and he will almost certainly transform into a silverback as he becomes fully dominant over the females, possibly very suddenly in just a few months.

He will also soon become the UK's best known Gorilla....

 

[Pertinax]

why did they wait so long?

They didn't. They would have started looking for another male pretty quickly, but it can sometimes take many months, first to find and be allocated a suitable one, and second, for him actually to be moved.

In this particular case, Yeboah and his slightly older male companion 'Vimoto' were both moved on the same day from a facility (La Boissiere) in France, the other male going to join 4 females at Wuppertal in Germany. Planning this 'double move' probably delayed it a bit more too.