Brace yourselfs your about to be shocked (don't have a heart attack) Bristol zoos supposedly male gorilla Kukena is actually a female! What will this mean will they have t move her on for breeding?
There's a long tradition of juvenile female gorillas being wrongly sexed as males. Achilla, the first breeding female in Europe, started off as Achilles. The first gorilla at Jersey, the much loved N'Pongo (mother of Kahili, who is still there), was originally thought to be male.
To be honest from the moment Kukena was born I always thought Kukena was a females name and not a males. Does anyone else share my opinion?
I assume that's because kukena ends with an A and they're aren't many traditional British names for men that end with A, where as there are loads of female names ending in A.
Exactly the same thing happened with Namoki at Bristol in 2008 (Pertinax posted about it in one of the old Bristol threads). They may well have to move her eventually, but that would have to happen irrespective of her gender. It is actually very good news as her grandparents Lomie (originally from Chessington) and Samson (Bristol's original breeding male) have few descendants and so we can hope that she will be able to pass on some of their rare genes. Many male gorillas have to live in bachelor groups, but females usually have the chance to breed.
To be honest I don't think there was enough space for the ever reliable Bennett's. Badly thought out exhibit given the lack of space to play with. And yes rock wallabies can do well in walk-throughs, as long as they have enough space to get away from people. Problem with the Bristol exhibit was they were viewable from one side into the house, and then the other side from within the enclosure.
I've only just read this about Kukena. With Namoki, it was only three years before they discovered the mis-sexing- but Kukena is around six now! Don't they ever watch them urinating? Its a giveaway! But good news too as easier to get her into a breeding group in due course- unless they 'retire' Jock in the future and add an unrelated male- all the others at Bristol are now female...(Romina, Kera, Kukena, Touni ,Afia, Touni baby- provide they haven't got that one wrong too..) could be a recipe for their future grouping.
Yes, thanks, couldn't remember. still getting used to the idea Salome has a living daughter. Good news really as easier for her to join another group.
Lovely day at Bristol zoo today - we got particularly lucky with the tree kangaroo as having been told by a keeper that they've not been venturing outside very much (she had not seen them out before) the male promptly decided to head out and gave us a good 20 minutes before going back into his indoors quarters. He seemed relaxed and confident and very interested in all the smells.The female is much more shy and has apparently only been out in his outdoor section when they have been mixed together - but has not ventured out into her's alone yet. Male is called Mian, female is Kitawa - they are both about 2.5 years old. We liked how they have modified the enclosure - good viewing on both the indoor and outdoor sections I think it is a much better exhibit than the previous incarnations. If anyone is familiar with the Tamandua enclosure at Colchester - the outdoor sections reminded me of that. There is also a small aviary section with Bali Starling and another bird which tbh I can't remember what it was because I did not actually see it! Enclosure doesn't open until 10am - which gives just enough time to see everyone in Twilight World. Which we did - including the Kowari. In other news there was a sign up on one of the empty aviaries saying it was under development as a new aviary section. The benches have been removed from the lawn and there was no mention of the former animal show. We did however see the two racoon brothers that have previously been in said show in their enclosure behind the inflatable slide thing. No sign of the parrots though.
Wonga pigeon are the other bird in the small aviary. I assume at some point the birds will be released in to the main walk-through.
100+ year old Iconic Eagle sculpture on the Aquarium repaired and given a sprucing up. Eagle sculpture at Bristol Zoo Gardens is over 100 years old
