Steve the siamang, is now a dad, after spending 7 years alone in a small cage, he was introduced to a female Lisa, from Fota in Ireland, on a new island exhibit. This was all documented on the BBC tv series wild Welsh zoo. The baby is a male. Manor House Wildlife Park welcomes new addition (From Western Telegraph)
Invigorating to note that owner Anna Richardson decided against great ape shrink's advice and simply designed a better exhibit for the siamangs and brought in a female for socialisation. Look what happened ...., fingers crossed it will continue on this good road!
That's about the best news I've heard from here. She made a good decision too, as a naturally-raised Primate can go a remarkably long time without contact with its own species, yet still turn out to be perfectly normal if later reintroduced- most famous example- Atlanta Zoo's Gorilla 'Willie B'- about 27 years!
Excellent news . I hope this leads to a long-term stable Siamang family . I believe this is the third Siamang birth at Manor House . After both previous births one of the adult pair has died some time later , with a long gap before another pair has been formed . This was the case with Steve , his father died , leaving his mother and Steve , then ultimately Steve . If I get a chance I will check up on the Siamang Stud-book which I think is somewhere on-line for more details of the history .
From the photos in the Gallery, the new enclosure looks fine, but its very short on ropes, horizontal branches etc for swinging. Just some mainly upright saplings on the island. People don't seem to realise that to be able to brachiate properly gibbons need horizontal equipment regularly spaced to swing along under. (Marwell's is currently similarly lacking). They could use Monkey World's gibbon runs as a good example of what is really needed.
