Lowland gorillas in Europe

08-11-2007

I am all for drastic measures .. here Only a new young adult silverback will do.

Let Samsam grapple with the older 2 females only.

08-11-2007

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.
20-11-2007

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.

20-11-2007

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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Jonathan Beilby-www.zooscene.co.uk

(Join the hornbill group-www.zoobeat.com/group.php?groupid=2)

28-11-2007

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.
28-11-2007

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. 'Fritz' is, or was, pretty old- in the World's 'top 50' oldest gorillas list.

Is he dead, or still alive?

29-11-2007

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.

30-11-2007

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.

15-12-2007

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.

17-12-2007

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)

17-12-2007

You saw it here first!!...

05-01-2008

A female gorilla has been born in La Valle des Singes, France. Mother is the oldest female of the group, Virunga. It`s Virunga`s 3rd child and her first daughter. The 2 sons (8 and 3 years) are still in the group. In total, this is the 7th gorilla born and raised in La Valle des Singes, which is an excellent result not only because 7 gorillas born in 8 years is great and having a 100% survival rate is great, but also because the silverback Yaounde is genetically important and 2 of the females are wild-born and only started to breed at La Valle des Singes.

05-01-2008

The Vallee de Singes group has indeed been very successfull, especially for the original four adults(1.3)- none of which had bred before being formed into this group. The male Yaounde, as well as being genetically valuable, had been kept in several previous situations at Artis, Loro Parc, Nurnberg and others. As he matured he was deemed very aggressive and difficult to integrate socially with females. But the Vallee de Singes gave him another chance in a more natural setting- and he didn't fail them- he settled in fine and became a good breeding male and group leader. This is indeed a very successful group now. Very encouraging to see the number of babies born here.

05-01-2008

This is what I meant the other day that some gorilla exhibits are not conducive to gorillas actually forming a stable family group and go on to breed (the London Zoo papers!).

On Yaounde's track record, the previous comments are not entirely clear on silverback quality. At Artis (junior male in a stable family group - the previous breeding male Tembo lest we forget) and Loro Parque (integrated into a bachelor group).

His status at Nurnberg Zoo, I will check up on. Did he go on to another zoo before moving to Vallee des Singes at all???

06-01-2008

I'm not sure where else* Yaounde lived but I remember Vallee de Singes said he had a previous reputation for being 'aggressive' or 'difficult' with females. I imagine this was simply because he was introduced to only a single female previously whereas at the 3 females at Vallee de Singes could balance him out.

*he was born at wassenaar but when it closed he was seperated from his mother who was sent to the USA. I heard somewhere he has had 6 different homes...