Yeboah died at London Zoo on Thursday following a short illness. Vets treating him under anaesthetic lost him as his heart rate dropped and they were unable to revive him. Very sad news and my thoughts are with the fantastic keeper team who have worked so hard over the past few months to create a social group of gorillas. They must be devastated and struggling with the loss. Until the post-mortem is completed, no news on what caused this is available. LB
What terrible news. Such a shame to have lost him so soon after finally integrating him into the group.
Death of Yeboah. This is bad, bad news indeed. I can hardly believe it- London's Gorilla group does seem to be blighted by continual misfortune. It took them almost a year to bring in another male after the death of 'Bobby' and three months to integrate him into the group, only to lose him so soon after. They must feel like giving up after this. I hope they don't have to delay so long in getting (yet) another male, but again it will be dependant on the Studbook keepers and other considerations.
Terrible news . I saw the group a fortnight ago and was impressed with how relaxed they looked . If any of the females are pregnant putting in a new male will be even more difficult .
Awful news I feel very sorry for the keepers who've worked so hard to get a male to London and to integrate him with the rest of the group, only for this to happen.
They are indeed. This is the seventh male they have had since 'Guy' in the 1970's, and no young born for over twenty years. It does seem as if they are jinxed in their attempts to get a breeding group together. It is not difficult nowadays but somehow success still eludes them at London. Those females really do need another male a.s.a.p. and not be left 'male-less' for another twelve months or so. And London might also like to have a male on display this year too. I rather hope that no female is pregnant from their brief time with Yeboah and so maybe that won't create yet another barrier to pushing things along quicker this time.
Tragic news. As Mammals North makes gains with the Clore, a void will linger in the team in Mammals South. My thoughts are with them, I know how very hard they worked to integrate him with the females.
Dreadful news! I trust that the cause will be found and that the females will not be in danger of infection. I agree that it is important to get a new male in place asap. I hope they can persuade the studbook keeper to get thinking. Alan
This is terrible news so sad and I never even got the chance to see him. Pretty much everyone said he was quite underdeveloped for his age maybe this was a sign of underling illness. I hope they do find a male to replace him soon London Zoo deserve to have this incredibly long run of bad luck balanced out.
Yes very sad news about him I hope they have much better luck in the future. It seems a little odd that they have not really had a breeding group at London zoo that I know of which is after all is the National zoo in the UK when a little zoo such as Chessington zoo have a thriving breeding goup????
He was underdeveloped for his age but this could have been genetically inherited as his father 'Arti' was also a very 'late developer'. But it could also have some connection with his general condition, and in turn, illness, as you suggest. He was one of the last two males at La Boissiere in France and I'm not sure they are going to be allowed anymore Gorillas as they lost one youngster and another was on death's door when returned to Stuttgart nursery. He would have undergone a thorough vet check, no doubt but its also possible the stress of his move to a new home made him more susceptable to picking up a virus- but that's just a guess.
I know we have discussed this before, but it does seem ironic ZSL struggle so badly with their group. There isn't much point in recrimination, but I think they made a very bad decision a few years back when they exchanged their male 'Jock' for the Rome/Bristol male 'Bongo'. Jock is a breeder/excellent group leader and is still thriving at Bristol. He didn't get on with(one of) the two older females at London, but if they had got rid of THEM(as they did later anyway)- instead of HIM, and added younger females at that stage, things could have been very different to how they are now. However, they still didn't have the new exhibit then. Bristol benefited from this hugely and now have a successful group but London were really setting themselves up for failure by letting him go. I think that was a very bad decision they made.
There must be another adult male within the UK that they could obtain for the females that has different bloodlines?
