Gorillas at Berlin Zoo. » Berlin Zoo

Gorillas at Berlin Zoo.
23-05-2007

Can any European forum-reader give an update on Ivo, the silverback Gorilla now at Berlin. It was hoped he would breed successfully with the young female Bibi who arrived at Berlin last autumn and he did start mating with her soon after they were introduced.

I believe they were testing Bibi for pregnancy a couple of months ago but is there any recent news on this?

23-05-2007

No, nothing new. It has been reported that Ivo mated Bibi but if this was true mating and if he is fertile is unknown. No pregnancy has been confirmed yet. Given that he never sired any babys with the three females in Amsterdam who all became pregnant after less then one year with the new silverback (one of them, Binti - half sister of Bibi- already has a son), I doubt that he will father any offspring in Berlin.

23-05-2007

Thanks for that news. No, its not looking good for Ivo. Berlin said he had taken a big liking to Bibi and was mating her, unlike with the other females there. But if nothing happens, it looks like he will soon get moved back into a batchelor group- perhaps back to Loro Park, Tenerife? A great shame as he's a beautiful male but I know Berlin are keen to have more babies so may be forced to replace him. There's another, possibly better candidate at Loro Parc- Maayabu.

I also heard that JAmbo at Apenheul is getting on much better with the group now- also that he goes outside too, so things are looking better there now.

24-05-2007

Berlin will try to get rid of Ivo if he doesn`t sire babys in the next year, that`s for sure. But the EEP needs to approve a move and a new home for him must be found which is no easy task, he can`t go back to Tenerife because he fought badly with the other males there. Now that he had his own females for some years he would fight even worse with other adult males. I think the only option is to place him into a bachelor group with only very young males, or into a zoo with non breeding females. My personal opinion is that Berlin should not get a new breeding male until they renovated the great ape house; conditions there are not good and there are so many breeding groups of gorillas in Europe that not each zoo must breed them. They should keep Ivo and let the breeding to zoos with better housing.

Great news from Jambo! He is such a lucky boy, after growing up in the awful Krefeld great ape house without having ever seen grass or trees.

24-05-2007

Yes, it gets very difficult, perhaps impossible, to reintegrate a silverback male such as Ivo with other males, especially after living with females. In Uk Blackpool Zoo have a male (Jitu) in a very similar situation- they have three prime females but he hasn't bred. They also want to replace him but where can he go? Each time you set up a fresh male group, you have to build new housing for this somewhere. I do agree the dynamic of one silverback plus several younger males, seems to work a lot better than several adults.

Regarding Ivo- I guess Berlin will have to wait anyway until a solution can be found. I tend to agree that not all zoos need to keep breeding nowadays- an 'exhibit' group, if harmonious, is quite sufficient, but the zoos still want babies for the public appeal....