Karta and Kluet are together and mating......handraising never ideal yet a huge possibility here. The importance of them breeding outways the ongoing chance of missmothering.
i was hoping the zoo would continue to try and breed from karta. i thought to give up after two attempts seemed a bit extreme. maybe if the baby a handreared baby is reintroduced to her when its bigger she will be better at mothering it as its a bit older and hardier and then she will learn the skills to rear her own babies from birth after that.
Hasn't 'Karta' killed her babies as soon as they are born? Or does she just neglect them? If the first they will need to be ready to remove the baby as soon as its born as apes that do this often never break the habit.... If she's just neglectful they can afford to wait and see if she' shows any better ability this time around. If not, then reintroducing the baby at a later stage is always a possibility, as Pat mentioned above, and good for both of them.
Nobody knows how the babies sustained the injuries they had, so whether it was deliberate (goes against everything we know about her) or accidental (still strange to have two accidents) can't be determined. I am in favour of providing deep bedding and 24 hour surveillance to see what happens and be ready to intervene if needed. She is very valuable to the region so she had to reproduce.
Head, as far as I know. Maybe she was just careless going through slides, who knows? She is a very affectionate ape towards others and has shown gentleness towards a possum she had for a little while. But it's all speculation as no one knows.
I guess you'll give her another chance then. It would be good to get her breeding again, especially with Kluett as they're both unrelated to the other Sumtrans in Australia. Does Kluett have his facial pads yet?- probably not as Sumatran males often don't aquire them till around 18 years old....
Males never develop facial pads while they are in the vicinity of other padded males. So while Kluey is around Pusung he will never develop them.
Oh right, I didn't realise you still had Pusung. No, Kluett probably won't in that case, though I wouldn't say it never happens- but its rare. I 'know' Kluett's mother 'Gina' at Jersey, also his father Gambar(now dead) who was originally at London Zoo in the 1960's. 'Gina' is tiny for an adult female- she is also of the dark -haired 'type' of Sumatran. 'Gambar' was a typical looking light-coloured male.
I've certainly got photos of them. More problematic is posting them but I will try in due course. Will PM you to notify you if I succeed (i.e. next christmas)
