Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Gorilla | Date: Mar 19 2008 | By: admin

The time has now come to start the introductions of the Taiping Four gorillas to the resident group of gorillas at the LWC. For the past 3 months, since their arrival from South Africa, they have lived in the quarantine area of the project in a moderate sized great ape cage. However, now that they have passed successfully through quarantine they can be moved to the large open gorilla enclosure, with its 2500m2 outdoor area and 7 chamber night house. The move is going to be a very difficult and tense period for all of the gorillas and the staff as, like in any introduction, one can not be certain of what will happen. We hope, of course, that there will be no fighting or injuries and that all will go smoothly, however, as we are trying to introduce 4 sub-adult gorillas in to a stable group of 11 (sub-) adult and juvenile gorillas, we have to expect some serious clashes.

Fortunately the sex ratio of our resident group (7 females and 4 males) and the T4 (3 females and 1 male) being skewed towards females should mean a less aggressive introduction phase. However, as we have seen frequently, the females are by no means slouches when it comes to defending their territories.

A second introduction is also due to begin soon: that of the infant gorilla Bolo to a surrogate gorilla mother. This introduction phase will take place away from the main group in the privacy of a separate enclosure, so that the surrogate and Bolo can spend time together forming a strong bond and becoming familiar with their new feeding routines that will need to be strictly adhered to if the introduction is to be successful. For instance we need to ensure that the surrogate mother, who will be selected from the group, will still bring Bolo to the keeper side of the enclosure so that she can be offered her milk bottle through the fence to drink. Only when we are satisfied that the bond is strong and that the surrogate will care for and protect Bolo properly, will we begin to try to reintroduce the pair to the resident group.

So, in a few months time, if things go to plan, our resident gorilla group will have swelled from 11 to 16 gorillas. However we are aware that the group as a whole may not form a cohesive unit in which case we are prepared to split the group in to two, which will mean redeveloping the enclosure itself to cope with the needs of two separate gorilla families.

All in all it is going to be a very interesting few months in Limbe and we shall keep you posted on how it is all going.

I have posted a couple of photos so that our readers can see the gorilla enclosure that the T4 and Bolo will be enjoying soon.

Felix Lankester