Rigo the gorilla..... » Melbourne Zoo

12-12-2006

zoos company was 1998 does anyone else have the series? isnt it great

12-12-2006

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.
12-12-2006

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?

12-12-2006

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.
12-12-2006

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)

13-12-2006

Hi everyone - without sounding like a total weirdo, I would have to agree with the comment that Rigo IS particularly handsome!!! I think all gorillas are gorgeous but there certainly is something very special about him in my opinion. I really hope there is a happy ending to this story in the very near future...for Rigo's sake...

Rigo's story.
14-12-2006

Don't we all- hope there's a happy outcome for him....

Over the years I've seen dozens(if not hundreds) of gorillas in the UK, Europe, even in the USA,- (and OZ too)- plus I have loads of photos/postcards etc of them. They are all different, each and every one..

But I'd still rate Rigo as one of the most impressive males I've seen- his son Ya Kwanza at Jersey is very similar in appearance. Betsi's son Buzandi (not related to Rigo) is now a young silverback breeding in a group in Hanover Germany- he looks remarkably like his mother Betsi and is also a very handsome male in his own right.

Looks don't count much when it comes to breeding though. Its which male they want to try and breed from genetically who gets the chance. Since I heard that Rigo can see at least something of other gorillas when they are in the indoor dens at Melbourne the scenario looks better for if he's introduced to the group.

14-12-2006

I was pretty sure of this, but wanted to check before I opened my mouth - Rigo doesn't have access to the last of the old ape pits, and therefore, no visual contact with the other gorillas. He can smell and hear them though.

The zoo is about to move Motaba and the 2 young boys to the old pits as a bachelor group, and work on re-introducing Rigo back to the main group.

14-12-2006

lets hope this all goes well. at least then that means no gorillas will be housed alone...

zoopro when you say "the last" of the ape pits, do you mean the one that is closest to the gorilla nursury? from what i have seen of the inside of the gorilla dens (literally by looking through the windows) i'm guessing thsi is the only exhibits whos night dens are visble to the other gorillas?

however if this is the case - then this is the exhibit rigo currently resides in.

14-12-2006

Yes, Patrick, the one on the left of the four. The four old ape pits each have night dens in the old ape house. The nursery and the new gorilla exhibit share night dens in the new gorilla house (the one with the public viewing into the kitchen), but the dens are not connected to the old ape house. There is a raceway at the back that links the two buildings together.

14-12-2006

oh, see now i always thought that it was still one building inside.

it would be nice if they could redevelop the area so as to have the rainforest, a new outddor batchelor (or future second troop) exhibit, and a small, off-display outside exhibit for sick or quarrentined animals to get a bit of sunshine....

its nice that the entire area is now devoted to just gorillas..

Melbourne gorilla accomodation.
14-12-2006

Thankyou ZooPro for describing the set-up behind the gorilla exhibits.

Sadly it seems to indicate that Rigo won't have had any visual contact with the main group when they are all indoors -as they are kept some way apart. Still, I don't doubt he's aware of the others from sound and smell, which is better than nothing.

Qualifications
01-04-2007

Hi guys,

I was interested to hear your posts on Rigo and gorillas in the region of Australia in general. I am wondering where your qualifications lay, and if any of you actually work with or know these gorillas? Or if you have had any dealings with gorilla behaviour or introductions in the past?

Many thanks,

gorillagirl

01-04-2007

Yep. I worked with the gorilla group at Melbourne on and off some years ago. And you?

01-04-2007

ZooPro- Have you you heard whether the planned exchange of Rigo/Motaba in the Melbourne group is still on the cards?