He's trying to breed her and all she can think about is picking her nose! Nice set of ossicones on that male.
From the date; the female is 'Elilah' born at Marwell, still at London. the male I'm not sure. 'Rubani' now at Bristol?
It could be Dicky, formerly of Chester. He moved to London in the summer of 2006, if I recall correctly
the date given for this photo is 11.11.06, so if Dickie arrived in the summer of that year, it would be him rather than Rubani who would already have moved. So it would be the current pair; Dickie/Elila. There was a three- way move of male Okapis; Dickie- Rubani- Mbuti moving from Chester-London -Bristol-Chester.
Actually it was only a two way move. Mbuti was already at Chester for sometime before Dickie left. Breeding male died at Bristol so Rubani was moved to Bristol and Dickie to london.
I didn't necessarily mean the moves all happened at the same time- though I didn't know Mbuti was at Chester at the same time as Dickie. What was the idea of moving him there-more space or maybe to give Dickie some company?
Interesting I thought that terminology meant or at least indicated at similar period. I didn’t want to come across rude. Not sure it was anything to do with space, Chester were holding them off-show behind the giraffe house so had limited space. Reading up it is often advised to socialise calf’s, with other Okapi and this may have been the reasoning.
It didn't seem rude...I did presume the three males had moved in one round of moves so to speak and I wasn't aware M'buti was moved beforehand. I suspect it was because Bristol haven't really got the room for more than the breeding pair really. I don't know if there is any point moving M'buti from Chester- I think he will breed successfully when he is mature, and he's just as likely to with the Chester female as anywhere else(like Marwell) I feel.