Lowland gorillas in Europe 2008

Interesting are you sugesting this has happened in the past?

 

I have watched a couple of doc's, that there has been a been quite large sums of money been paid to aspinall parks for gorillas. Apparantly for there conservation projects they support.

 

Really!!! This suprises me. Would you happen to remmber what zoos made these donations?

Would be interested to have a better understanding of what exactly $ amount is "quite large sums of money ".

 

They have never mentioned the amount of money passed hands, but it has been discussed on this forum before.

One of the zoos, was in France but cannot remeber what the place was called.

 

If money was passed for the gorilla conservation programme in Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville ... that is fine! I still can not see why Aspinall Zoos is not cooperating with the general EEP in terms of breeding, exchange and in situ conservation. That is the only smearch on its rep I can think of.

The rift of old with ZSL may be about to go too as ZSL is now itself heavily involved in situ conservation, an element in its programme Aspinall Zoos have always put much emphasis on.

Gorilla wise I think that with so many gorillas at Port Lympne, why are no new groups formed in recognised EEP zoos that Aspinall feels comfortable with. Secondly, the current species coordinator is Apenheul with which Aspinall has very cordial relations. I think things may be about to change ... if Aspinall is to be taken seriously at all within EAZA (on a more general note Aspinall zoos still suffer from a chronic cash crunch ...

 

I have had a look l cannot see where it was discussed. If you could point me in the right direction [thread] it would be great.

I just find it hard to belive they would have done this in the past.

Jelle----"(on a more general note Aspinall zoos still suffer from a chronic cash crunch ... "

I know that to say that is to put it mildly.[/thread]

 

A few have been sent to France. A trio(1.2) to St Martin La Pleine(who previously got a breeding male(TamTam) from them also) and two females to Beauval and a male to La Palmyre. In the past a female(Kishka) was also exchanged with Jersey and a male/female exchange with Apenheul.
Overall though considering how many Gorillas they have, its a very small number.
Its possible some may be sent to more zoos in future though as I believe there won't be any further expansion of the Howletts/Port Lympne groups as far as building more enclosures is concerned. Maybe Apenheul as european co-ordinators will be able to get a better 'flow' of surplus animals from Howletts moving into the mainstream population, though evidently none were offered to ZSL for Gorilla Kingdom.

'Cash crunch' in Kent I have heard mentioned on this forum but not sure how bad things are. Its my belief that Port Lympne in particular must absorb a huge amount of money as it has the larger collection but is also not heavily visited by the public being in a relatively rural area and directly in competition with its own 'sister' Howletts closeby. At one time some years back there were even plans for them to sell it off.



{Note from mods - thread continues Lowland gorillas in Europe 2009}