orangutans of jersey zoo » Durrell (Jersey) Zoo

09-10-2007

They still have the old orang house which is still conected so they have room for easily 4 males and plenty of females

09-10-2007

wow so sibu is coming back to chester they could always bring back pundu to the zoo as well or new females to set up 2 bredding groups of boreans and 1 group of sumartens

09-10-2007

I am not sure the 2nd statement is correct.

Although there is plenty of ROOM for more Bornean Orangs at Chester, the adult males will need to be kept well apart from each other. But the new house seems to be designed to allow for this- one male could be using the very large open outdoor enclosure, and at the same time another could be in the square roofed enclosures. A third male would probably have to be offshow though in the old house.

(The Sumatrans are not taken into account here as they have their own indoor and outside enclosures seperate from the Borneans.)

10-10-2007

I am not exactly dancing up and down the road on this. It is just sad that Sibu has had the run around of Europe and not bred at all .....

10-10-2007

And here's a news article on this subject. It seems that gentlemen orang-utans prefer blondes (with tattoos)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (AHN) - "A male orangutan is baffling his Dutch keepers by refusing to mate with females and showing sexual interest only in tattooed human blondes.

A spokeswoman for Apenheul Primate Park was upbeat when Sibu arrived two years ago introducing the primate to its breeding male but apparently, orangutans aren't his type.

"He chases them, or ignores them, but he doesn't do what he should do," said the spokeswoman for the park.

To the surprise of the zookeepers, Sibu has shown a fancy for his female keepers, especially blondes showing a fetish for tattoos, harking back to a heavily tattooed keeper who reared him.

However, the spokeswoman said that it is ordinary for orangutans to have special interests in subjects. "Sibu happens to like tattoos," she said.

However, the park hasn't given up on the orangutan, the primate once showed an amorous interest in a female orangutan while still in England. This is giving his keepers hope he will find love when reunited with her in a new enclosure in Chester, England."

Source: AHN

10-10-2007

I agree. I thought his problems were because of his destructive nature but it seems he hasn't been at all successful with females either.

From the article posted on this thread, it also seems he's imprinted on tattoed human females(having been handraised by one) I'm surprised if that has affected him to the extent he's imprinted solely on humans- handraising doesn't normally seem to affect male Orangutans so adversely as in some male gorillas. If later raised with other orangs, they are usually quite normal as far as breeding goes.

Two other interesting facts about Sibu;

1. I believe he's missing part of a delicate part of his anatomy(self inflicted as an adult)... but it sounds more as if he isn't interested in females, rather than can't physically mate though.

2. They talk about a female at Chester that he was compatible with. It seems though that all three current Bornean females are related to him(Martha= mother, Sarikei and Leia = half sisters, all having the same mother,Martha) Putting him with one of these isn't much use - unless it is put on a contraceptive implant, in case he does breed. Though an infant born from half-sibling mating would probably be perfectly healthy anyway.

11-10-2007

Despite the dirge in notes on the orangs in Chester, I got a little confused. I suppose someone has put it down, but who is who again?

Also Chester has 2 adult males already ... any reason for that?

11-10-2007

Chester have two adult male orangs already because they have both Sumtrans and Borneans.

The current stock is; (Sumatran)adult male; Puloh. females; Emma & Subis. subadult male; Padang (10 years) plus two babies; Budi and Utara(one of each sex)

(Bornean) male;Tuan(new unrelated arrival) females; Martha,Sarikei & Leia.

Sarikei and Leia are daughters of Martha by different males.The male Sibu who is being talked about is also Martha's son, by (possibly) yet another male(Chester had several at one time in a group so his father is not known for sure) so he's related to all three current females.

When 'Sibu' is returned to Chester he really needs an unrelated female partner but that could quite easily be provided...

13-10-2007

i am a bit disspointed with chester zoo beacause they built a huge encolurse for the orans and havent used it to theri potenail - i mean i though more orangs would join the zoo and new breeding groups set up - apart form the arrival of taun nothing yet

13-10-2007

just found out regarding bristol zoo orangutans - adam and anne did go on to have a female girl mary - at santillana zoo , now i have found out that mary and her parentner have given birth to a girl named victoria who is being hand raised unfornatley anne and adam have now passed away , and recentlly they have given birth to another daugther juilana she also to is being hand rasied

13-10-2007

The daughter is actually called 'Maria' I believe, (Spanish equivalent of Mary?)

Its good if this pair has now bred twice, as 'Maria' is the only living offspring of 'Adam' who was a wildcaught male.

15-10-2007

i dint know that adam was a wildcaught male - they must then be a valuable additon to the breeding progamme maria , victoria and juilana now have to continue the line of the bristol zoo orangutans

15-10-2007

Well actually, its only their father Adam's line which is not represented elsewhere.

Anne has other descendants, she was also the mother of Julitta(now at Amneville) and grandmother of Emma & Subis at Chester.

Adam was wildcaught- originally imported to Belle Vue Zoo Manchester, then traded with a female and moved to Flamingo Park, then later as adult, moved to Colchester Zoo, then later purchased by Bristol to replace their original Sumatran male 'Henry' when he died. Finally he and Anne were sent to Santillana in Spain when Bristol stopped keeping Orangutans. So he had a number of homes in his lifetime.

17-10-2007

he got about a bit - thats true adams only offspring was mary luckily she had babies and females so his blood line is secure - and mary is still breeding so more babies to come it would be good if she produced a son

18-10-2007

[quote=orang09;24584]he got about a bit - thats true adams only offspring was mary luckily she had babies and females so his blood line is secure [quote]

Actually, Adam had a lot of other offspring while he was at Bristol- but all died except one male Kertawa which was handraised at Twycross and then sent to Japan (bad mistake- he should have been kept in UK/Europe)