Lowland gorillas in Europe #2

23-09-2008

Viatu/Basle (Faddama x Pepe) is going to become the new breeding male in Frankfurt, after Matze`s death a few weeks ago. I think that`s a good decision - he has grown up in a good social situation, has already sired an infant, and he is not directly from the overrepresented Jersey line while his wildborn father had just very few offspring and one of them is breeding outside Basle Zoo.

23-09-2008

I think he became the favourite. In my opinion he's certainly a much better choice than the hand-reared male 'Atanga'.

It will be the first time there's been any direct link-up between the two long established groups at Basel & Frankfurt.

17-10-2008

Gorilla news from Europe:

- Viatu has just arrived in Frankfurt and it seems he settles in well
- the first gorilla born in Duisburg is a female
- second gorilla born in Duisburg just a few days ago, gender still unknown, mother is Safiri - Rigo`s second grandchild!
- male gorilla born in La Valle des Singes in France, mother Moseka, father Yaounde. Its Yaoundes 8th offspring, all alive, and Moseka`s third son. Given that all gorillas at La Valle des Singes are genetically extremely important, it doesn`t matter that 5 of the 8 are males so far!

17-10-2008

Safiri is mother of the first Duisburg baby. So the mother of the latest one must be either 'Vizuri' or 'Momo'(most likely Vizuri as I think Momo is suspect...) Mapema's move to Duisburg was just what they needed.

17-10-2008

You are certainly right, the mother of the new baby is Vizuri. Mapema has mated with Momo too so the zoo is hoping for a third baby (at least this is what the press relaese says), but I have no information how realistic this is. I guess Viatu will produce babys in Frankfurt in a similar speed!

17-10-2008

'Momo' was born and handreared at Stuttgart. She later joined Edinburgh's small group for some years but never became pregnant there. I don't know if it was her fault or the male SamSam- he's not a very virile male. It would be good if Mapema succeeeded with her too.

17-10-2008

The two females at Frankfurt that 'Viatu' could breed with are 'Dian' and 'Ruby' but I don't think they ever bred with Matz so not sure if they have any problems. They may do better with a different male now.
'Rebecca',their only breeding female of recent years,is still rearing Matz's last son. 'Jule'(born 1965) is 38 & probably too old to breed now(but don't count her out completely!)

17-10-2008

Pertinax,

I think both the aforementioned were Apenheul born and bred females. I really think that Matze was something of a disaster with anyone else but Rebecca. A sort of one woman show ...

I sincerely hope with Viatu - a socially very adept young male - will change all that and turn out to be a much better breeding male and silverback to his family.

18-10-2008

What happened is fairly typical in long established groups with no change of male. When Matz was a much younger animal, he did breed with the original females in the group and has a number of offspring from them to prove it..(dublin's male Horst is an earlier son of his) But over time and as they all got older, he lost interest and stopped mating with them. Frankfurt later added the younger females and he was still breeding with the younger 'Rebecca' right up to the end.

Dian & Ruby were both born at Arnhem Zoo but joined the Frankfurt group from Munich & Leipzig zoos respectively. Hopef0ully 'Viatu' will take an interest and get them breeding too(which Matz didn't manage...)

18-10-2008

I`ve heard that Rebecca has played her part in stopping Matze from developing an interest in Dian too - she was jealous. Ruby, on the other hand, had been mated by Matze serveral times if I remember correctly. I hope these two will breed with Viatu while Rebecca already has more then enough sons! Matze could have sired many more infants, but honestly, I am happy that there are "only" the 18, he is already overrepresented in Europe and in my opinion, too many of his sons have a breeding group (Damisi, Akili, Rick, Horst!), with Derrick siring serveral offspring before his death and daugthers Inge, Liesl, Lia and Changa breeding too.

18-10-2008

He is very over represented. Every where you look there are Matz offspring and their offspring! I was sorry Damisi was recently chosen for Chessington for that reason.

18-10-2008

Both Dian and Ruby are important to the EEP as Arnhem born gorillas are yet make a significant impact on the EEP. For me the importance is to get both Dian and Ruby breeding with a new male.

If Rebecca is a disruptive force + considering she is well represented with offspring in the EEP gorilla population, I would favour taking her out.

18-10-2008

I think you'll find as the only breeder, Rebecca is the pivotal animal of the group. I wouldn't want to see her removed unless absolutely necessary. Maybe as she's still rearing a baby she will let 'VIatu' get on with the other females, if not seperating her off temporarily when either is in oestrus to allow him to mate them would probably do the trick. She maybe needs to go on the pill though.

18-10-2008

I think the Forum will now be offline till Sunday. Goodnight.

02-11-2008

Bad news: 5 moths old Femi, the daugther of Josy from Hannover Zoo, died a few days ago. Josy had neglected her daugther from the beginning, but since she was nursing her and the other group members carried her when the mother didn`t, the zoo decided to leave her in the group instead of hand-raising. It seems a week before her death, silverback Buzandi (accidently?) injured the baby and then she died.
That`s very sad, especially because Femi was already 5 months old which is amazing given the rough childhood she had, but I hope Josy has learned a lot and will become a better mother with her next infant.