Timbou and Mataki are living on their own because Timbou was very aggresive to other members in the bachelor group and was seperated and Mataki was attacked by Djimu when boumi died and as Boumi looked out for him no one was there to protect him and I dont think Mataki was Defending himself. Ujiji however was in the other Bachelor group of himself, Boulas, Oumbie and Kishum all three have now been moved on, so Ujiji is the only one left and it would be near enough impossible to integrate him with the other 'Kifu' males, but he is supposed to be going to Korea. GB
It wouldn't work to keep the solitary males with one or two females each? In the lower pavilion complex? If the bachelor group was in the upper complex (ex-chimpanzee cage and upper grass enclosure), would they be too close to female gorillas to still coexist?
Its a nice idea but I think the logistics are against it as there are still two bachelor groups, one with the three Silverbacks together(lower enclosure and paddock) and one with four younger males together (upper enclosure and paddock) These two groups would be impossible(?) to amalgamate now. Two of the seperated silverbacks (Mataki & Timbou) occupy sections of the original circular enclosure, the third one(Ujiji) is in the tall round ex Chimp cage. All three separated males can see/contact other Gorillas and I'm sure PL will just continue keeping them like that- with the occassional departure such as(possibly)Ujiji . I don't think bachelor males living in close contact with a male/female combination would do any harm at all, better than never having any contact with females at all, but keeping males/females together on a 1.1 basis is often a recipe for bullying behaviour. Also all the three separated males have not seen a female since they left their natal groups which makes such intros more difficult still.
Really good footage of the Sumatran rhino while they were at PL (at 4:08): Port Lympne Wild Animal and Safari Park 1993 Gorillas Rhinos Tigers - YouTube
Thank you for posting this link. It's the first footage I've seen of them since watching an episode of the "Really Wild Roadshow" (a kinda spinoff where they toured UK zoos (I also remember the Colchester episode where they stated they exhibited 14 species of cat)) as a child.
I went back in May and felt it might be my last visit there, though I will continue to visit Howletts when possible.
Anger as Britain's top zoos hired out for 'wild' parties Not just gorillas taunted at drink and drug-fuelled Zoo Festival Captive Animals Protection Society
The music festival has been there before and since several seasons in various forms. Would you believe CAPS ..., if it brings in the punters and gate receipts and not in with the most sensitive of species what is the bother?