Lowland gorillas in Europe 2009

{Note from mods - this thread continues from here: Lowland gorillas in Europe 2008}



Gorilla Ivo at Berlin not yet to become father. Tests showed no pregnancies at Berlin at this moment.

 

I don't think Ivo will ever become a father. He failed at Artis and now after several years at Berlin too- maybe he is infertile.

 

New group leaders.

Many of the males suitable/available in other respects, to take over the male-less groups at London & Twycross are from very well represented lines genetically- e.g. nearly all the surplus males at Port Lympne and any male descended from several other's such as Frankfurt's. Any Basel/Jersey descendant can be ruled out too as both the London & Twycross groups contain females descended from that very productive line.

One possible male still from a very under-represented line is Kolmarden's 'Nasibu' now aged 12. There are one or two others but they are increasingly hard to find.

So maybe its time to bring in at least one male from the USA now?

 

Or they will come from Monkey Valley.

 

I presume you mean 'Vallee de Singes' in France. The males born there are still too young.

 

Howletts Death.

The silverback 'Kijo' died at Howletts on 20th December- a heart-related death.. He was their oldest group leader and had twenty offspring. He was also the first gorilla ever born at Howletts.

See UK thread titled 'Kijo' for more details.

 

Kolmarden to Lisbon transfer for Nasibu.

According to the 'Portugal' section, 12 year old male 'Nasibu' was sent to Lisbon in December from Kolmarden Zoo. Presumably the old silverback male 'Cuko' at Lisbon has died, or been transferred away though I can't find any references. They again have 1.3. and if 'Nasibu' breeds its most likely to be with the youngest female Anguka(14) who came from the Taronga(ex Apenheul) group in 2007.

It will also be interesting to see whether more offspring are born at Kolmarden now that Nasibu has left....

 

I visited Bugers Zoo (Holland) this weekend and the introducion of Makua, a 4 1/2 old hand reared female from the Stuttgart nursery, wasn't still a succes. She's the half sister of Bokito (also brought up for some time at the home of the keeper in Berrlin) and she came to Burgers a few months ago. She lacks a lot of social skills and drives Bauwi, the very mellow silverback at Burgers, completely confused and irritated. She's still most of the time in a seperate room.

 

The introduction of these handraised 'orphans' into established groups often takes a long time, just because they are lacking social skills and don't correctly interpret displays or overtures from other group members. So the silverback or other adult will punish them, maybe causing injury and delaying the introductions for a while which creates a sort of vicious circle.

It sometimes takes many months to introduce these young females into new groups but it can be done. Two other young females with similar background have gone from the Stuttgart nursery to Dublin & Bristol- 'Mayani' is integrated at Dublin and 'Kera' is being mixed with Bristol's group okay too.

 

News from Frankfurt - new male Viatu and Ruby are expecting an infant! Unfortunately, introductions between Viatu and the older females (Rebecca and her two sons, Dian and Jule) didn`t go as well and Ruby and Viatu are currently seperated from the others. There are two large on-show indoor enclosures so that`s no problem in the new great ape house, thankfully. I guess the main problem is Rebecca, she is very dominant. Given that she is from a very over-represented bloodline and already has a lot of sons it doesn`t matter if she doesn`t breed again, but I hope Viatu will breed with Dian. She never had an infant before AND she is genetically important.

 

I cannot understand the new management - not with its choices for bears and despatching the clouded leopards in the Asian Carnivore House in favour of overrepresented fossas - and neither the logic for separating Viatu from the main troupe with Ruby.

If any individual gorilla should be separated it is Rebecca with her 2 sons AND then leave Viatu to be chef over the rest of the troupe. I would even advocate sending off Rebecca and her 2 sons to another collection alltogether.

 

Good news of the forthcoming Ruby x Viatu baby at Frankfurt.... Bad news of the integration problems.

This is what can happen when a young/blackback male is added to an established group- unlike a silverback he isn't big or experienced enough to dominate the females properly. Even Apenheul have advised in the past against using blackback males as group leaders, yet despite now running the Gorilla EEP they seem to have gone against their own advice in sanctioning this move- probably because the zoos/keepers involved were keen for it to happen.

Similar problems were faced by Jersey(with Ya Kwanza) and also Howletts(with Bitam) in the past when these young males were introduced to established older females. At Frankfurt Viatu has obviously teemed up with Ruby. They may now be able to integrate the other females over time although he may never breed with Rebecca. That isn't too important as she is overrepresented anyway. As for Dian, maybe her current allegiance is with Rebecca, but she may come to prefer him over time, who knows? Despite his young age Viatu was a good choice genetically so as long as he breeds with one female at least, I think it is good news.

 

Chessington birth.

birth of male baby to Damisi and Buu at Chessington. see UK thread for full details.

 

I`ve heard that Dalila, one of the wild-born females from Apenheul, will move to Gaiapark Kerkrade (owned by the same company). I guess the reason is that Dalila has not accepted the new young silverback Jambo as "boss", which is causing trouble in the group, and as wildborn female with no male offspring, it would be good if she`d breed again. The male in Gaiapark, Makula, was born in Apenheul, but is not related to her and a fully mature silverback now, hopefully she will accept him although he grew up in the group which she led as alpha female.

 

A sensible move I think, as it sounds like she may never allow Jambo to breed with her. 'Dalila' is very distinctive-looking- I always think her face looks like the 'Planet of the Apes' gorillas

Maybe she will 'hit it off' better with Makula at GaiaPark. The situation will be the reverse of with Jambo at Apenheul, as Makula is the established boss whereas Dalila, despite her past conection with him, will now be the newcomer- or thereagain she may just prefer Makula to Jambo... Lets hope it works out.

 

What about Dalilah and Irala, do they really fit?

 

Dalila and Irala know eachother, but I don't know how they got along. Irala was the favorite girl of Makula from the very first day she came to Apenheul. Dalila is very dominant so I don't know if she can cope with the situation of Irala being the alpha female. It will be very interesting to see the reunion of Dalila with Makula, Irala and Loango. They all know eachother very well, but the chess pieces have moved on the board!

I want to add I'm very happy Apenheul is doing finally something about the situation of Dalila. She had two bad years with Jambo in which she was covered with bad wounds many many times and one could see her getting older by the day.

Other sweet and sad news from Apenheul. Last night 35 year old gorilla Mintha gave birth, she didn't have a baby for the last 12 years!
Sadly, in the same night the gorilla baby Lembo'e (daughter of Kisiwa) died. The last week or so she didn't eat properly and from the start she was a very small fragil gorilla girl. The cause of death will be examined.

 

That sounds like they would never have got along properly so even better that she is to be transferred then and I hope she has a less stressful life in Makula's small group-it remains to be seen if she will settle in okay.

Sad news about Kisiwa's baby. Do you know if it has been determined yet who is the real(birth) mother of Mapassa?

 

Also Blijdorp had a birth yesterday tamani gave birth.

 

It's still not certain, but they think Mandji is the mother, because of the fact Mapasa has the same extremly black fur as Mandji has.