Lowland gorillas in Europe

21-03-2008

I'm not sure it has already been posted here (this topic is to long to read the whole thing back ), but madrid had a very jung animal in the group:

Don't think it's over a month old. Unfortunately no sign of date of birth or parents or something.
I could see a male, 2 females and the newborn.

21-03-2008

According to the zoo`s homepage, the father is Malabo, the mother is Gorka (born in Budapest) and the baby is a female. The second adult female in the group is Coco from Barcelona (wildborn, confiscated and raised in the Stuttgart nursery before returning to Spain).

Malabo is as good as wildborn so the birth is great news. It would be even better if he bred with Coco because she is highly important genetically too. Coco lived in Barcelona with both Xebo and Awali but neither got her pregnant, so she was moved to Madrid to give her it another try.

21-03-2008

thanks for the info. Could you also find a date of birth?

for those interested to see the animals behind the names:
this is gorka & offspring: Gorilla gorilla gorilla - Gorilla on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And this must be coco:


The male was hiding behind a tree so no pics of him...

21-03-2008

Also in Spain, at the new Valencia Zoo- Yassa reports the old male 'Catou' from Duisburg has died. This may now allow them to form a single group around male 'Mambi', with the females Dorle, Fossey and...? (probably Bikira from belfast but not arrived yet...)

21-03-2008

I don`t think it will do any good to put Dorle with Mambie and Fossey, she is hand-raised and and not very social. She is extremely dominant (and was never coming along very wlel with Catou for this reason...). Putting her with Mambie would probably lead to serious fighting between the two and this can hardly help with Mambie`s introduction with Fossey.

22-03-2008

That's a pity as Dorle is now a 'spare' female alone. Mambie also seems a very dominant male although until now he has not lived with a female since leaving Twycross many years ago. I heard that he is/was fighting with Fossey. The only thing is if Dorle and Fossey would live together okay, they might be able to form a better foil for Mambi's aggression- but it seems like there may be problems ahead here?

23-03-2008

I can't open this. Do you mean Kolmarden have another baby gorilla or are you talking about one at another zoo?

24-03-2008

No, i dont mean that. her is the site - SwedenZoo, Swedich Zoo news , on english, more info there

16-04-2008

Female Lobo at Apenheul has given birth to a baby gorilla on April 12, 2008. She was originally thought to deliver in February/March, but it seems she was successfully mated later on ... the baby is healthy, but its sex is yet unknown.

A third female, Kisiswa is due in autumn. So, new male Jambo has now sired 3 offspring. However, he is as yet not dominant enough to impress all the females, in particular the older ones ...

16-04-2008

This will be Kisiwa's 2nd pregnancy by Jambo. The first ended in mystery- it seems most likely her newborn baby was stolen by 'Mandji' who is rearing it as her own (male 'Mapassa'), but they haven't been able to prove this as they need to take a hair sample of the baby..

17-04-2008

Female Viringka (born 1995 in Zuerich Zoo) at Leipzig Zoo has given birth to a baby gorilla on 15 April 2008. It is her second offspring after daughter Kibara in 2004. Sire is Gorgo.

31-05-2008

3rd gorilla birth in the last few months in Hannover Zoo, Germany: Josy (9) gave birth to a healthy baby - gender yet unknown - 2 days ago. Father is Buzandi (ex Melbourne). It`s Buzandi`s 7th infant since 2004 from 4 different females. Only one infant did not survive, Josy`s first which was either stillborn or died very shortly after birth, the 6 others are doing well (age newborn - 4 years)

06-06-2008

The Lowland gorillas at Budapest Zoo (the silverback Golo, was born in 1980 at Stuttgart, female Liesel, was born in 1977 at Frankfurt, female Iringa, was born in 1998 at München and a young male Ebobo, was born in 2000 at Budapest) after a long waiting period received their newly built 1300 square metres outdoor enclosure next to the Big Rock in the end of April.
There were three occasion at Budapest that a baby gorilla was born: male Dango in 1992, female Gorka in 1996 and male Ebobo in 2000 (all from the parents Golo and Liesel).
Hope they have a pleasant new home which they’ll repay for with further babies!

07-06-2008

Interesting article on the latest gorilla birth in Basel
Monkey business discovered in Swiss zoo

07-06-2008

This is all rather confusing.... It also indicates a level of inbreeding too.

Chelewa was born in December 2005(now two and a half) so they must have discovered this by DNA testing more recently. Her mother(Wima) and the father(Viatu) are possibly half- brother and sister(if they share the same father Pepe, rather than different fathers, Kisoro & Pepe respectively.) Viatu was just six when he sired this infant and that is extremely young, though its not unknown for younger males to mate in the presence of a breeding silverback.

'Gorillas Galore' the unofficial studbook lists a different male- Vizuri- as the father of 'Chelewa'. The two males Vizuri and Viatu were born in the same year though Vizuri is 10 months older, and they are possibly more closely related than halfbrothers -they share the same father (Pepe),while their mothers(Quarta & Fadama) are mother and daughter. Pepe is also the father of Quarta's daughter Fadama, so he's Viatu's grandfather as well as his father... so Viatu is very inbred even before fathering a baby by what may be his halfsister. Vizuri has since been sent to Moscow Zoo. I wonder if a DNA test can distinguish between these very closely related two males to tell which is really the father of the baby?

Basel Zoo do have rather a problem with closely related animals in the Gorilla group nowadays. The unrelated silverback 'Kisoro.' who is an elder full brother of Apenheul's 'Jambo, asnd the unrelated female 'Joas' were brought in as outcrosses- however it seems the related animals have been breeding as well. DNA testing would presumably show if Pepe or Kisoro is the father of each of the younger animals and the exact level of inbreeding.