Gorilla Design

07-07-2008

Yes, it was, except it has a grass floor, not straw litter which is possibly the single most important component of the design.

Columbus had great problems getting any of their gorillas to mother-rear their babies, even 20 years after the first birth. Aspinall said he couldn't understand this, though it was evident why- the earliest babies were all handraised and the animals weren't in a social grouping- no females ever saw any mother -rearing or handled other babies, creating a 'vicious circle' of more abandoned babies. They finally managed to break this cycle but despite being the first zoo in the World to ever breed a gorilla, when it came to management and social groupings, Columbus fell way behind a lot of other zoos for many years.

Aspinall also sold Columbus a 'breeding' male- 'Mumbah'- who turned out to be a complete non-breeder at Columbus! Mumbah is 'supposed' to have an offspring or two at Howletts but I think Aspinall knew he was suspect which is why he let him go...

07-07-2008

Yes you are right it was a grass floor I do have a Gorllia book I picked up in North America with photos of the exhibit. Also it says the former head of the zoo went over to see the Gorllias at Howletts.

Mumbah was exported to the US and Howletts imported a breeding male from a east coast zoo which gave them a boost they needed in there breeding program.

07-07-2008

'Kisoro' was Howlett's very first breeding male(after the catastrophe with the first male 'Kulu' ten years previously -see previous post). The next up-coming male in the Howlett's original group was 'Gugis' but he never bred though he mated the females- they believe he was infertile and he was a bit of a 'psycho'(an aggressive male) anyway. So they were really stuck with four prime 'ready to breed' females yet no breeding male .

'Kisoro' came from Lincoln Park, Chicago. He was put with the main group of females and breeding quickly started after that. The first baby 'Kijo' is currently their oldest group male. 'Mumbah' was the baby in the original group and then lived with 'Djoum'(male) & 'Mushie'(female)- he later left for the USA(well after Kisoro's arrival) because they didn't need him and there were no batchelor groups then.

The problems surrounding starting the Gorillas breeding were well described in a Biography about John Aspinall called 'A Passion to protect' , the chapter is aptly entitled 'The Coming of Kisoro'

07-07-2008

Do you know who are their main breeding males at this time?

07-07-2008

1.Kijo- first gorilla ever born at Howletts(Kisoro x Juju)

2.Kifu. - first son of Kijo( as above) x Founa(wildcaught female)

3.Koulliou(I can never spell it right.) Handraised wildcaught orphan but breeds okay despite being humanised/orientated.

4. Djanghou- newest breeding male(Djala x Sangha) all his females were born at Howletts in other groups, so whole group is Howletts-bred.

5. Djala- wildcaught- head of Port Lympne breeding group.

They also just recently sent three more handraised babies back to Africa to link up with some 'native' orphans for eventual release.

07-07-2008

...and the breeding male 'Kibabu' at Taronga Park was born at Howletts too. He is another son of 'Kisoro' (Kisoro x Baby Doll) so the younger animals in Taronga's group are still related to some of Howlett's too.

07-07-2008

HI Pertinax, Artis zoo only uses the deep litter in the indoor enclosure. Using a bark and dirt composite. I have not spoken with keepers at this zoo regarding the deep litter. Only going by what l have seen.

Once again l wish l could tell you the names of the gorillas that Rigo is interested in sexually. I just would not know there names. I could point them out to you if we were both at the enclosure!

As you mentioned it is our common interest in zoos and animals that we have in common. Not individual passions.

All the best.

Stuart

08-07-2008

In your first post about this you said Antwerp, not Artis. I guess you meant Artis though? I've seen their enclosure- its okay but not specially good in my opinion- the indoor bark floor is a good idea though- its also used at Givskud(Denmark) and in London's new Gorilla Kingdom indoor area too, probably at a number of others too e.g. Jersey.

08-07-2008

Yep Artis, I agree Pertinax the enclosure is not ideal by a long shot. Very few are.

08-07-2008

Apenhuel's outdoor island is probably the best Gorilla enclosure I've ever seen, but the inside was a very basic design of house and the large group must be stuck in there a lot during winter. I believe its now been/being redesigned though.

09-07-2008

Yes Apenhuel's outdoor island is great. I was there for my birthday this year on April 3rd.

As usual I was there right at opening and headed straight to the gorilla house. I spent about 1 hour just watching them. I agree that the space is small with the traditional concrete floor. I can understand that in such a place it is very problematic to have anything else. There was straw scattered around and l am sure that such an establishment would have many enrichment devices used. I just did not see any others except a few Hessian sacks.

I do believe that it is how they use such an enclosure not necessarily the size that is the issue with such a space. A well adjusted silverback and his family can be reasonably content in such a space. I know it's not ideal! Frankfurt is a great example of this. There daily feeding/Enrichment in a small space is without peer.

I personally belive that the training of elephants in zoos under the guise of enrichment is just unfourtunate. As any animal in captivity provided with a appropriate family grouping needs little enrichment.

I wish l could use the gorilla names! They have a new Silverback in there group. [I bet you know his name and who his parents are ;]. Well it was fascinating as he was obviously an inexperienced guy. The House as l am sure you are aware is small but it also has many compartments with doors that can be half opened allowing the smaller Gorillas access butt not the Silverback.

I was surprised to see a few of the gorillas had very obvious bite marks on them! Had actually not seen this before on more than 1 gorilla at a time. Seems that there is allot of tension in the group!! The Silverback was not with the group later in the day. It seems that his introduction is a slow process. As he learns how to be a Silverback. The dominant female and l think her 2nd in line are obviously not accepting of his arrival.

Later in the day, l went to the Gorilla ampetheatre. It did bother me that the Gorillas were more or less having a "chimp tea party". The paying public seemed to love it and it gave the keepers a chance to educate the public.

The outdoor exhibit is fantastic although it would be great to add a high climbing structure to allow the gorillas to survey they domain. They do it seems appreciate a view! Sharing the space with the Patas monkeys is a great enrichment. Apparently any new member introduced to the group soon learns that the Patas monkey is far quicker.Apparentey the Patas monkey night quarters are ridicoulsy small! They do however only spend a couple of weeks locked away 24/7.

In the forceable future they will not be building a new gorilla house unfortunately! As the renovating or replacing the present one is not a priority of the zoo.

I would be interested to hear what happened to the previous silverback?
You don't happen to know if the story behind Apenhuel's creation has ever been written in a book in english?

I do know that the transfer of a gorilla group to Sydney Australia was the last sale of gorillas. As the director actually owned some of the gorillas.The last privatley owned goillas in the zoo world l think.

Stuart

09-07-2008

When l visited Bristol zoo in the 80"s. I will never forget my suprise that they had some of there females on the pill. Not that they were worried about the haveing babies. They did not belive that there were enough zoos at the time to house gorillas!

09-07-2008

All of Chester zoo's female chimps have been on contraceptives for the last few years. The odd births in that time have been due to accident.

09-07-2008

That was partially a stunt the press got hold of and very ironic as they actually had an atrocious breeding record at that time (Barcelona were similarly bad) with very many births but nearly all the infants dying within a few weeks or months. One Bristol female had ten births(including stillbirths & miscarriages) yet none of her infants ever survived longer than c. two years. Three other females at Bristol had a similarly unsuccessful breeding history but with less births. Poor husbandry and/or diet plus a total lack of enrichment probably accounted for this as nearly all other zoos were successfully breeding young at that time. Bristol's husbandry has changed considerably since those days and their current gorillas are breeding normally.

Quite a few zoos keep some or all of their female Gorillas on contraceptives nowadays to keep a manageable & balanced population- in Australia both Melbourne & Taronga Park have done so recently.

09-07-2008

1. Apenheul may not use a lot of enrichment as the Gorillas live a very natural life when outside- maybe they bring in branches etc to the night quarters.

2. The new Silverback is called Jambo and came from Krefeld Zoo in Germany. He replaced the original male 'Bongo' who died the previous year. Jambo had never been in an outside enclosure before arriving at Apenheul. Settling in was a difficult process for him with some of the older females not accepting him straight away- hence the bitemarks you saw.

3. I think the public feeding is very good- its not like a 'teaparty' scenario but is a good chance for education & photography. All they're doing is getting the group to all stay in the one area for a while. Many zoos do public feeding like that nowadays.

4. I'm sorry to hear they aren't enlarging the inside area- I thought they were. In my opinion that's a priority for them- this indoor house is very small & cramped and its almost substandard by now.

5. The original Silverback was called 'Bongo'. He fathered many babies with the older females in the group but died a year or so ago.

6. All of Aspinall's gorillas are still 'privately owned' So are those at many other zoos where they were originally paid for from animal dealers etc
Most- but not all- have now made them available for exchange programmes but they still effectively own them I think.