Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo Chimpanzees

Hi all,

Does anyone have information on Twycross Zoo's current chimpanzees? I can't find an up-to-date list of names anywhere and I know a few have passed away in the past 5 years or so.

I have this list, but I'm not sure if it is correct.

Coco
Peter
Jomar
Tommy
Kibali
Noddy
Rosie
Tojo
Lottie
Samantha
Holly
Josie
Victoria
Genet
Tuli
Flynn
William
Jambo

 

Lottie died around the time of the transfer to Chimp Eden. Victoria now seems to be going for the position of chubbiest female.

 

Tojo has died aged 43.

Chimp who had been at Twycross Zoo for 40 years dies

 

Rosie died last month too

 

I believe at some stage in the future they are planning to add some young (probably pure West African) females to rejuvenate the group(s) as it is has been very age-heavy for a long time now and continues to dwindle each time an older one dies.

 

Doing some maths and algebra.

2.2
Coco - P.t. verus (1965, wildborn)
Noddy - P.t. verus (1972)
Kibali - P.t. verus (2003 - born in Bremerhaven, arrived in May 2015)
Josie - P.t. verus (1988)

0.1
Tojo - P.t. schweinfurthtii (1976) - deceased May 2020
Samantha - P.t. schweinfurthii (1980)

6.4
Rosie - P.t. hybrid (1976) - deceased April 2020
Lottie (shorthand for Charlotte) - P.t. hybrid (1978) - deceased ca. around May 2017
Jambo - P.t. hybrid (1982)
Holly - P.t. hybrid (1982)
William - P.t. hybrid (1982)
Flynn - P.t. hybrid (1986)
Jomar - P.t. hybrid (1990)
Victoria - P.t. hybrid (1990)
Peter - P.t. hybrid (1992)
Genet - P.t. hybrid (1995)Tommy - P.t. ssp.? (1995)
Tuli - P.t. hybrid (2007)

It is down 2.5 - actual 3.5, given that the male Kibali is an immigrant - from the 23 (10.13) they maintained up untill 2014.

However, they have come a long way in integrating the current chimp group and it will take a good deal more time to manage the number of hybrids to zero. Also, you are not about to start integrating 2-3 young females in an established chimp group just for a nice try (that takes months, if not years to do).

Mind you all chimps have personalities which gives another dimension to group compatibility and re-arranging chimp groups in general (which is why usually a consort group of at least 2 new ones is introduced). Then again, you are all guessing and speculating how things might develop ... well good luck with that!

 

The western chimpanzees at the zoo are 1.3 - Coco, Noddy and Josie are all females. So the zoo do indeed currently keep 7.8 animals: Samantha, William, Peter and Tommy in one group, and Coco, Noddy, Jambo, Holly, Flynn, Josie, Victoria, Jomar, Genet, Kibale and Tuli in the other.

 

That sucks ...., I should have checked all the sexes too ... I assumed Noddy was a male.
Is this the boy named Sue complex, we are in?

(BTW: I loved Johnny Cash ..., well even his last album sends shivers down my spine,
his fragility and staring death in the eye and coming up with his best yet ...)

 

The intention to acquire new younger females at some stage was mentioned briefly in an interview Zoo Director Sharon Redrobe gave some months ago- though no timescale was given.

This is currently an ageing group. They can only expect to lose yet more of them in the coming years and currently with no recruitment from breeding, the group(s) will just continue to shrink if no new animals are added.

 

Perhaps they will look to mix there current chimps into one side of the enclosure and start a new troop to eventually replace these when they pass in the other rather than mix new stock in will the old

 

There is in fact 2 enclosures (I did not know that or simply assumed from the various photos - I have not seen it in person yet - that they have 1 indoor / 1 outdoor only)?

 

Cant they breed off Jambo. I know he has aleopica but if its an endangered specie then all births are key right ? and still isn't kibali a a perfect breeding male ?

 

The two groups were kept in separate enclosures but they now have both been moved to the new enclosure, which is only one outdoors but an indoors that can be split in two. Each group has one half of the indoors and (I think) alternate access outdoors.

No. Not only is Jambo a subspecies hybrid, which the European breeding programme specifically can’t breed off of, but he also probably has bad genetics if he’s managed to contract alopecia.
Kibale is not the perfect breeding male with the current group - he certainly is genetically, both because he’s unrelated to everyone and because he is a western chimpanzee, but the only three females he’d be able to breed with are past breeding age (in two of their cases) and not keen on him (in the third case)...so Twycross’s best bets for breeding is to wait until the old guard die off and then start bringing in younger western females to breed with Kibale.

 

There is only one out door space but the indoor is two enclosures both the same size which currently hold both groups and they share the out side which I know isn’t ideal but it’s has worked for them so far and with other species in the zoo so I can’t see why it could not continue if they where to replace the ageing group for a while till they pass rather than trying to mix new stock

 

Is Coco one of the oldest chimps in Britain now then?

 

Not just one of, I think she’s the joint oldest animal in the UK now, together with female Mabel at Welsh Mountain.

 

Yes, I'm sure if new females were obtained then they would be kept in one half of the indoor areas with Kibale, with the rest of the group on the other side, at least until all were familiar with each other. Having alternate access to the outside isn't really a problem as they use it sparingly anyway, and in bad weather not at all, while the indoor areas are very spacious.

 

Kibale was obviously brought in with the hope he might breed with some of the (then five) identified Western females they have but hasn't for the reasons you state(plus the two others have since died and were probably unsuitable anyway) I imagine they may try and redress this with new females as Sharon Redrobe mentioned in the interview I saw.

 

The layout in the new building is ; two very large equal-sized indoor display areas, with visual/mesh contact between them, + one large outdoor enclosure, + offshow dens. It would be comparatively easy to add new females by housing them (and Western male Kibale) in one of the large indoor areas,at least initially, as discussed above. Until recently(?) and possibly at present still, the 4 chimps from the smaller group were being kept like this.

The indoor display areas are excellent. The outdoor is rather underplanted and bare, spacious enough, but surrounded by a very ugly wall. The visitor viewing is from a single corridor in the house with viewing windows looking both inside and outside. The visitor passageway in the house is perhaps the main shortcoming as it is very narrow but all in all its a very good enclosure IMO, vast improvement on previously.

 

Have they been trying to integrate the 4 ex Colony ones with the main group yet?