Melbourne Zoo Rigo the gorilla.....

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patrick

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i visited melbourne this morning and overheard the zoo guides telling visitors how rigo was the most genetically valuable gorilla in the world. they also metioned how he was very large for a silverback and particuarly handsome, as if that had something to do with his value! whilst i'm not sure about him being the most valuable, he certainly is underrepresented genetically, and after thinking about it more and more i'm starting to think that it is totally unacceptable, in this day and age, to keep a social animal like a gorilla, wether he be genetically valuable or not, alone for 10 years without any real company. i also think that removing moataba and his still young sons from the troop is an equally unfair.

now i can only see two justfiable scenarios as to why melbourne would keep rigo alone for a decade in a sub-standard enclosure.

1) the zoo believes he has such bad social problems he cannot be kept with any other gorillas, or

2) despite years of trying the zoo has never managed to secure a place for him at another zoo.

the sign on rigo enclosure states that they hope one day he will lead a troop of his own at another zoo.

now i don't work within the zoo industry, but i find it hard to believe that if rigo was so genetically valuable, that not a single decent zoo in the world has shown any interest in acquiring him in the last 10 years.

i also don't believe that the zoo belives rigo is an unsociable gorilla - otherwise they wouldn't be suggesting placeing him within their troop in the near future. nor has from my knowledge, rigo ever been attempted at being integrated with any more than two female gorillas (betsy and yuska) in his life.

melbourne zoo has an obligation to update their exhibit and place him with some new female company, or give him to a zoo that can. examining the ape grottoes this morning i can tell you now that it would require very little to refurbish them into something that was acceptable. european studbook or not, it seems rediculous that he is living alone when their are two totally unrelated females living just 800km away in adelaide.

10 years living alone is long enough!!!
 
Hey Patrick. A few answers to your questions:

rigo was the most genetically valuable gorilla in the world.

Rubbish, of course!! He is wild caught, and therefore valuable, but there are many other wild caught gorillas in captivity. He has an offspring already, so his valuable genes are being spread around other zoos. There are many more wild-caught gorillas, who have not produced offspring, who are therefore, genetically more valuable than Rigo.

1) the zoo believes he has such bad social problems he cannot be kept with any other gorillas, or

They certainly haven't wanted to risk him being introduced to any other of their other gorillas in the past, but hope(?) that in a bachelor situation, it might be different

2) despite years of trying the zoo has never managed to secure a place for him at another zoo.

True. None of the zoos in the region want him, and the cost associated with sending an adult silverback (with potential introduction issues) anywhere overseas from here has made it a very big risk indeed for overseas zoos. With the number ofmales in the US and Europe, why would you bother importing such a risk from Australia?

nor has from my knowledge, rigo ever been attempted at being integrated with any more than two female gorillas (betsy and yuska) in his life.

Sadly, I'm almost certain that this is true.

their are two totally unrelated females living just 800km away in adelaide

This is true, but these girls are already destined for export overseas in the short-medium term.

You are right about 10 years being too long alone, but sadly, Melbourne's in a tough situation. It would be nice if they had the space, the resources and the inclination to build a second large gorilla enclosure, and establish a bachelor group, but I very much doubt that will happen.
 
Rigo- facts and fiction.

Zoo guides should be better informed as to what they tell the public...##

'Zoo Pro' is exactly correct in all the statements made about him- except I think he's been alone a lot longer than 10 years- I think you'll find its more like more like 25? ( I saw him alone in 1990 so thats at least sixteen years, and I know there's been no change since then.)

I think you will find the planned move of males at Melbourne will happen as I previously described, and that Motaba and his sons will form a subgroup. I do think it would be better for all of them if the two females at Adelaide had been sent to join Rigo instead of leaving Australia, and Motaba and his sons stayed on in the main group at least for now.
 
How long Rigo alone?

Patrick.
It shouldn't be to difficult to find out exactly how long Rigo has been alone- I'm sure its a lot, lot longer than ten years though.

Incidentally, do you know if he can get any contact(Visual, smell etc) with the other gorillas when they are in the inside cages? That would be better than nothing. I suppose he may possibly be able glimpse them occassionally over the wall of the outdoors too but its pretty high and also depends which grotto he is currently kept in. He really needs to be able to TOUCH other gorillas- even if seperated by mesh.

A zoo will make statement about a particular animal's situation to make it SEEM as if things are really okay when its not...
 
Rigo's situation.

The first time I visited Melbourne Zoo was about 1982- Rigo was not on display so obviously he wasn't with the females then though I can't say whether they had already been seperated at that time. Ya Kawanza/Mzuri was born in 1984 and my guess is Rigo was not with the females by then- that's 22 years ago(!!) though I could be wrong on that.

No other world-class zoo(yes, I'd class Melbourne on that level) has a gorilla in a similar situation -maybe in the past, but not now. The fact that Rigo is in Australia where there are only two gorilla groups still doesn't warrant the lack of action. Like the male Yoaunde in France, he acquired a bad reputation as a young silverback and it has stayed with him. So it was easier just to leave him on his own.

Still, it seems things are about to change for him soon- I wonder what will happen?. He may get along famously with his new friends, or he might not, or the stress of meeting other gorillas again after so long may finish him off with a heart attack (that does happen with some silverbacks, believe me.)
 
i have heard rigo has visual contact with the other gorillas when inside the night dens. however this doesn't change an aweful lot for me. his enclosure is atrocious and he is spends almost all his time alone.

you culd be right about it being longer than 10 years - i just quoted a volunteer, but when i think about it it seems longer. rigo and yuska have always lived at melbourne, but they were joined some years later by betsy and buluman, so melbourne has for a long time held two silverbacks. though rigo was fertile he didn't get along with the girls and mzuri was thus born through AI. buluman on the otherhand was sterile but a great troop leader. he moved into the new gorilla rainforest and lead the troop until his death. the gorilla rainforst opened in 89'...... but i'm not sure if rigo was still being attempted at integration then. does anyone now what year motaba arrived? he was brought in to replace buluman. was it the same year mzuri went to jersey?

one other thing - some time after mzuri was born another male and female where born bambuti and ...(?)

were these gorillas born to motaba or am i imagining things when i think they came earlier?

anyhow, thanks for the detailed response zoopro :)
 
hay guys, im not an expert on australia's gorrilla popultion, could some1 give me a quick run down, like of whos who, age, sex location that sorta thing

much apreciatted

also, can you still view him, when i was at melbourne in october, i didnt see him, all the grottos were closed, so i didnt see ringo or any orangs, except from over a fence, with a camera hehe

Zoo_Boy
 
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Motaba arrived 29 March 1990. Mzuri went to Jersey 17 Jun 1993. Female Bambuti was born in May 2001, male Batouri was born in September 2001, and Motaba was the sire of both animals.

They've also had male Yakini born in November 1999, female Jumatona born in 2000 and male Ganyeka born in 2000. Motaba sired these two also.
 
so by tht melbourne has had 5 births, tht is very kool i didnt know tht, so how mnay is in troop now, Motaba?, 2 females, 2 juveniles, is this corret
 
wow i didnt know they had that many in the troop, i thought it was lot smaller, so is this write

Motaba, silverback
2 sub-adult males-offspring
3 adult females, and 2 sub adult females-offspring

sorry im jst getting my head around it
 
sorry zoopro,

is that a typo - wasn't yakini, ganyeka and jumatona the last group of youngsters born?

was bambuti and batouri both born in 1991? not 2001? because i thought those two were now mature adults living overseas?

also was batouri always his name? i'm sure i remember the second oldest male having a different name....

anyhow, sounds like motaba has been in the troop a long time. buluman must have died a very short time after the rainforest opened then, unless motaba was immature still at that stage and not troop leader?

oh its all very confusing!! in any case, i think grants right - its been longer than 10 years!!
 
According to my sources ;) Ganyeka in 2000, still at Melbourne; Jumatona in 2000 and Yakini in 1999, and these were the last three births.

And oops - yep a typo - Babmbuti born 1994, sent to Jersey in 2001. Baturi born 1991, sent to Hannover in 2001. Sorry for the confusion.

Batouri's house name is Buzandi.

Buluman died in March 1998.
 
bulaman was on the zoo tv series on the ABC, called Zoo's Company, a great series exploring the 3 victorian zoos. anyway he was on this, and im sure this eries was somewher between 94 and 97, and he died 3 months after the series finished, and it showed when both ringo and motaba where in isolation.
 
great! fanstatic - now i got it!

interesting that at one stage melbourne had 3 silverbacks. that would explain why i remember buluman leading the troop. rigo and a young motaba must have lived in the two bamboo screened grottoes at that time.

batouri i had never heard of before - but i definately remember a buzandi.

yu got the troop a little muddled zooboy it is as follows...

motaba - silverback male, from jersey
betsy - quite old adult female, originally came from taronga with buluman
yuska - adult female, original melbourne gorilla, mzuris mother.
g-anne - adult female, originally from from jersey
julia -adult female, originally from jersey
jumantano - female 6 years old
ganyeka - male 6 years old
yakini - male 6 years old

that one adult male, four adult females , two young males and one young female......
 
i have it , its brilliant, i pull it out heaps and jst chuck it on, do u remeber the controvery following, about the zebra dying en route to monarto.

thnx pat, i had no idea about it, it needed to be spelt out to me in such a way, u r a bloody champion. now i know melbournes, what about tarongas hehe
 
gorillas.

Again, ZooPro has all the dates and info correct.

Melbourne have bred six gorillas(don't forget the first- Mzuri)

Motaba arrived in Melbourne(1990) three years before Mzuri left(1993) and they lived together as blackbacks in the troop during some of that time ( I saw them).

Betsi's children Batouri/Buzandi(male) & Bambuti/Bahasha(female) went to Hanover and Jersey zoos respectively. Buzandi is the successful troop leader in Hanover and has several offspring so Betsi's line is assured. Again, he was aggressive on being introduced to the Hanover group of females- attacked an infant from the previous male(though it survived) and-yes,again like Rigo- he was deemed an aggressive 'psycho' and they thought it would all fail- but he gradually settled and is now the perfect male. He is very handsome-looks exactly like Betsi(not his father- Motaba)
Bambuti at Jersey hasn't bred so far- Ya Kwanza's problem?

I KNOW that Rigo has been alone much longer than 10 years-its nearer 20!

BUT I'm really pleased to hear he can see other gorillas in the night dens. That's very important as it means he has been able to have a continual link with them and is not totally isolated. Being on show alone is still bad but if/when he is put with the others he will still know who/what they are. If he could start to touch some of the females/young through a grille partition, it would be even better. Maybe they will arange this in the indoors soon?
 
i dunno the exact setup of the facilities inside the gorilla house. the situation with buzandi demonstates that being highly social and intellegent creatures, you can't exactly consider a gorilla as having a "social problem" simply because he faught with the only two other gorillas that he lived with. i faught with most of my housemates over the years. once my girlfriend, punched me in the head because i muttered "bitch" under my breath. when i was a kid my big sister used to tease me until i charged. she would then lie on her back on the loungroom floor and strike out with powerful horse kicks or even worse would hold my forehead knowing very well my fist-swinging, shorter arms would not connect with her guts....

..do i have a social problem? (well i know a few people who might say yes, but i think my ex-girlfriend definately deserved 20 years isloation after that whack in the head!)

anyhow, my point is, we all fight and gorillas are no different. just beacuse you don't get along with some people doesn't mean you wont get along with others, or eventaully resolve you differences. suffice to say the more people you meet the better. if you took 3 random children and rasied them alone in a cage together chances are they would eventually attack eachother - lets hope not using my sister horse-kick technique...
 
gorila socialisation.

Patrick- yes, you're largely right. What happens is when there's a lot of fighting- say between newly introduced gorillas, its pretty dramatic stuff, lots of screaming, hair pulled out, biting and don't they smell when excited- phew! This may go on for weeks, even months before things settle down... Sometimes its enough to make the staff feel its never going to work. That's what I think happened previously in Rigo's case...

Of course gorillas in captivity only replicate their lives in the wild- where a new troop leader will sometimes practice infanticide of (unrelated) offspring born before he took over- so Buzandi's original behaviour at Hanover with a strange infant was not unnatural. Hanover should have known better than to allow him access to a female with a young infant, but as I said, thats all in the past now and he's a model father to several babies.

I'm really pleased to know Rigo has had some sort of longterm contact with the group in the indoor dens. Its not ideal but means he hasn't been in total solitary all this time. It makes me much more optimistic that he can be reintroduced into the troop smoothly and it won't prove too stressful for him.
(A number of male gorillas in zoos have died(even quite recently) from heart attacks induced by severe stress e.g. suddened heightened activity after living a quiet life for many years-like him)
 
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