Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: Gorilla | Date: Jul 01 2008 | By: limbewildlifecentre

I have some very sad news that I wanted to share with the readers of this blog:

On the morning of the 2nd June 2008 one of the gorillas known as the Taiping Four died after a short illness. The female gorilla, called Oyin, arrived from South Africa on 1st December 2007 and had spent 4 months in quarantine with the three other gorillas that had arrived with her. In mid-April the four were moved to the main gorilla enclosure to begin the introduction programme to the resident gorilla group. However in late April Oyin became sick and despite treatment her condition steadily deteriorated and after 10 days she sadly died. A full post mortem examination was performed and tissue samples have been sent to the Great Ape Health Monitoring Unit at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany for analysis, the result of which will hopefully shed some light on the cause of the death.

Everyone at the LWC is devastated by the death of Oyin so soon after her arrival and we are monitoring all of the other gorillas closely for any signs of illness. Currently all of the gorillas are well and the introduction of the other three gorillas has gone very smoothly and they are now fully integrated with the resident gorilla group.

We would like to thank all of our supporters and friends who have been so supportive through this difficult time. I know everyone who has cared for the Taiping Four during their stay in Pretoria and in Limbe are very saddened by this news. As soon as we have more information regarding the cause of death I shall share it with you.

Felix Lankester
Project Manager

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