WORZ Gorillas

And now for a second bombardment of gorilla photos, this time from Werribee Open Range Zoo. It was my first time visiting the zoo and I was very impressed. I do think it would have been a lot more enjoyable in the school term though, being school holidays it was packed with screaming children. It's shame that people aren't bright enough that a gorilla probably isn't going to be impressed by your unimpressive chest beats and bizarre Tarzan calls. And that wasn't even the children, those were the adults! Now I've had my whinge, I will say that there were also lots of sensible people who were quiet and respectful when watching the gorillas.


The houses three males, Motaba and his two youngest sons, Yadumu and Ghubari.

This is Motaba. I really like him a lot, he's a magnificent silverback. Motaba spent a lot of the time sitting with his back against the glass, so it was very near impossible to get decent photos of him up close, but I think I did pretty well considering. I loved being close enough to actually smell him, I love the scent of gorillas- so gorillary (made up word)!








This is Yadumu (Yakini), the 'middle' gorilla. He spent a lot of time snoozing in a shady shelter. The last time I saw him was in January 2009, and he has matured so much since then.







And this is Ghubari (Ganyeka), Motaba's youngest son. I think he's a very handsome young man.

Melbourne Zoo Orangutans and Gorillas

Visiting gorillas is always very exciting for me as there aren't any living in South Australian zoos, so it's a rare treat to see what is probably my favourite animal of all.

Melbourne Zoo is one of my favourite places to see gorillas, along with Bristol Zoo in the UK, I just love their group, which now includes one of my favourite gorillas from Sydney, Mbeli. Unfortunately, Mbeli never really put herself in a decent spot for a photo so I didn't manage to get any of her. I did get plenty of photos of some of the other gorillas though, including my two other favourites, Rigo and Julia. I think Melbourne Zoo has a great gorilla enclosure, lovely and shady with lots of vegetation and places to get out of the public eye.

Rigo (looking pretty darn good for a forty-something year old):






Yuska


Julia





I loved watching the zoo's orangutans as well, especially beautiful baby girl Dewi. It's always special to see a baby ape cared for by his or her mother.

Maimunah and Dewi


Dewi


Maimunah


Gabby (Kamil)


Kiani (Suma)


I have many more photos in my Flickr album: Melbourne Zoo
There are pictures from a few years back in there as well, the recent ones are in the bottom third.

Chimpanzees in the Media

Hi all, I'm back from a short trip to Melbourne and, though I will post a few ape photos from the zoos, after seeing a few advertisements featuring chimpanzees while I was over there, I thought I'd give my two penny's worth regarding the use of chimpanzees in entertainment and the media.

For most people, the idea of what a chimpanzee is would come from their presence in television shows, circuses, movies, advertisements. and printed media such as greeting cards. What many people don't know is that the vast majority of the chimps they see are infants and juveniles, as very few continue their 'acting careers' once they reach the age of around eight or even younger. This is because adult chimpanzees are immensely strong, intelligent and capable of dealing considerable damage to humans. The tragic event in 2009 involving a pet chimpanzee, Travis is an example of just how dangerous chimps can be to humans. Unfortunately, the presentation of cute chimp babies in the media encourages people to buy them as pets (which, shockingly, is legal in some parts of the USA) This is disastrous for the chimp, an intelligent creature with a highly complex social structure who will grow too strong and dangerous to handle and also potentially disastrous for their human owners.
 As well as giving a misleading picture of what a chimpanzee actually is, the use of chimps for comic effect doesn't help their conservation either. A recent study (Chartrand, Hare, Rosati, Schroepfer, 2011) found that seeing chimpanzees in these unnatural situations gave the impression to the viewers that chimpanzees are not an endangered species, and made the viewers less likely to contribute to chimpanzee conservation charities.

As I mentioned earlier, the chimpanzees used in the entertainment industry are almost always infants and juveniles. For a chimp to be trained, he or she will have been removed from their mother at a young age. This denies both the mother and the infant what is an extremely important relationship. Chimpanzee infants will nurse up to between four and five years of age and may remain close to their mothers for the rest of their lives. Not only is the infant missing out on this relationship, but also a healthy social life; chimpanzees naturally live in large fission/fusion communities with complex social structures. Depriving an intelligent animal such as a chimpanzee of a decent social life is incredibly cruel. It is cruel for the mother as well, chimpanzees have been shown to grieve for others, especially mothers for their infants. Whether or not the actual training was using force or positive reinforcement, all chimpanzee 'actors' have suffered at human hands.

Bearing in mind that chimpanzees can live to up to sixty years in captivity, their time in the 'spotlight' is very brief. What then? If they are extremely lucky, they will retire to one of the few chimpanzee sanctuaries in the United States, where they will be cared for at the sanctuary's expense for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, they may find themselves in deplorable conditions in roadside zoos, biomedical research laboratories or in breeding compounds, where they will bring forth another generation that will suffer for our amusement. Even if the retirees do make it to a sanctuary, they will likely have poor social skills after growing up with humans rather than chimpanzees.

Recently, a company infamous for its inappropriate use of young chimps, CareerBuilder, has announced that following pressure from concerned people and organizations they will not be airing a commercial as part of the Super Bowl this year. Previous commercials have included young chimp 'actors' wearing clothes. Hopefully, this will be one of many steps forward for chimpanzees in the near future.


I have heard people say; 'why does this matter so much when there are human beings suffering out there?'.
It matters because it is completely unnecessary for us to use chimpanzees in this way. Do we need to laugh at a chimp wearing clothes and fear-grinning to live fulfilled lives? I don't think so. There is no reason why this should continue, and so many more reasons why this must end.

I would recommend looking at the website of the Center for Great Apes, a sanctuary in Florida home to many chimpanzees and orangutans previously used in the entertainment industry. http://www.centerforgreatapes.org/apes-in-entertainment.aspx
The sanctuary also has a Facebook page where photos of the apes are regularly posted.
https://www.facebook.com/CenterForGreatApes?fref=ts

Just wrapping up with a few photos of Zombi and her infant daughter Zuri at Monarto Zoo. If you could see the tenderness with which Zombi cares for her baby, you would understand why it is so wrong to deprive chimpanzees of this relationship just so we can get a cheap laugh.

Zombi and her infant

Finally, here are some of the photos I've taken so far of Zombi and her baby girl at Monarto Zoo. Unfortunately she didn't go outside much with the baby on my most recent visits so you'll have to excuse the poor quality indoorsy shots (the chimpanzee house is good for the chimps but rather dark for photography!).

Approximately 1 week old...





And at one month old...





I just had to share one of the gorgeous cheetah cub as well!

Gorillas and things

Kriba and baby Kipenzi at Taronga Zoo

On the way from South Africa last month, I had a brief visit to Sydney's Taronga Zoo for the sole purpose of visiting their two groups of Western lowland gorillas. Anyone who knows me well will be aware that I am a gorilla nut, they are my absolute favourite animals, but I don't often get the chance to spend time watching them in the flesh. Whilst I didn't enjoy the zoo itself all that much, and found the gorilla enclosures (and the loud, disrespectful and highly populous horde of visitors!) to be not the greatest, I did enjoy spending quiet moments with Kibali and Kimya, as their enclosure wasn't as mobbed as the main one, and they had access to an area away from the rude public. Admittedly, seeing the beautiful Kriba with her utterly gorgeous new infant, Kipenzi was very special. It's wonderful to see apes being raised lovingly by there mothers, so many apes are not so lucky in this regard. I had just spent two weeks at a sanctuary caring for many ape orphans, so seeing an infant lucky enough to be raised this way made me very happy.

On another gorilla-related note, I've just started researching for a university report, which is to be on an endangered species of my choice... can you guess which species I chose? I'm hoping that I will be able to visit Melbourne Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo to visit and photograph the gorillas for this project. I will also be contacting people involved with gorilla conservation (the species I chose was the Western gorilla). Should be fun, and hopefully an opportunity to learn a bit more about a species that I am so passionate about.


This is Kimya, the young female who is living with the new male, Kibali. She is probably the most beautiful gorilla I've seen. Kimya often holds her hands to her ears, which I hear is a trait unique to gorillas originally from Apenheul (Kimya's mum, Kriba came to Taronga from Apenheul).

So, that was the 'gorillas', here come the 'things'; basically what I'm going to be getting up to. The big ape news in South Australia at the moment is that lovely Zombi at Monarto Zoo has become a mum for the first time. I can't wait to visit the chimp group, and see Zombi with her precious new infant. While my feelings about apes in zoos are very mixed, I know that Zombi's little one will have a fantastic future at Monarto, the chimps have an excellent enclosure, with lots to do. Having a new baby around must be great for the newly formed group as well.
Here's a photo of Zombi from when I last saw her, way back in April (it's been FAR too long since I've been to see the chimpanzees!)



On to the doggy stuff- Bella recently had her first (and last!) sleepover with her Borzoi friend Arya. Unfortunately, it was all just too exciting and they were up at three in the morning wanting to play. After almost two hours of trying to convince them to go back to sleep, we ended up giving in and letting them play outside for a few minutes, waking up whoever had managed to, so far, sleep through the noise. Finally the two naughty hounds went back to sleep at about 5AM. On the plus side, we were quite productive that weekend, and Bella will soon have two new pyjama coats.
 We recently started obedience classes at a different club (this one has a fence), I'm hoping that we'll get to the point where Bel can give agility a try because I think she'd love it. We're entering two conformation shows in September, and another two in October, hopefully will get a few more points, or otherwise just have a lot of fun. :)

Chimp Eden, South Africa

Mary, who holds many a male heart <3
When Mary gets up and moves away, she is almost always followed by her loyal male admirers, usually Charles or Marco.

I took a while to get around to it, but here I am, finally writing about my trip to South Africa. Spending time at a chimpanzee sanctuary- and being able to do something helpful!- was an amazing experience. Chimp Eden was a really beautiful place, aside from the chimpanzees, there was a variety of wildlife roaming free on the reserve. The local vervet monkeys were great to watch, though I was less fond of them when they stole a large amount of my unattended dessert (they ignored all the healthy food!).

I've got a small amount of video footage from the sanctuary, but so far I haven't been able to get it off the camera as we've lost that camera's lead. We've ordered a new one from the UK, and hopefully it won't be too long before I can upload the videos onto Youtube.



 Jessica, the dominant female in Group 1. She is quite a character, though Martha is not her biggest fan. The youngsters sometimes begged for food from her, but they had no luck. Jessica is certainly not one to part with her food.


I spent the majority of my time recording the behaviour of Group 1 (Charles and Jessica's group), which was lovely as I was able to get to know the chimps' fascinating personalities.



Mowgli, an extremely cute little man.
 For the first week I was there Mowgli displayed at me when I came to the enclosure, and often threw sticks and bark. It was never quite as impressive as the displays of the likes of Charles and Marco, and he has yet to acquire Marco's good aim thankfully. After that time, he must have gotten used to me, or at least figured that I'd been sufficiently awed by his powerful display, as he stopped performing charging displays at me.
 Mowgli became one of my favourites, he always seemed so cheerful, often turned pirouettes and somersaults. I really enjoyed watching Mowgli, and golly, he has a handsome little face!



Tamu playing with Charles, the big boss.
Tamu is the youngest in the group, but makes up for his small size with a big personality, he hangs around a lot with the big guys. It was lovely to see a big dominant male like Charles playing with a juvenile like Tamu. He certainly knew the right spots to tickle to make Tamu laugh REALLY loudly! Charles has a very traumatic background, he was rescued from the same circus as Jessica and both were in appalling condition.

Another photo of Charles, he is the boss after all.




This is Suzie, one beautiful girl. Her favourite fashion accessory is a small stick in her ear, as modeled in this picture.
Suzie is one of my absolute favourite chimpanzees. When she sits watching you it feels almost like she's looking right into your soul, there's something very human-like about her gaze, even more so than the other chimps. She often sits with her legs folded and her hands in a lap, somewhat reminiscent of how a human child might sit. It seems Suzie has become good friends with another favourite of mine, Charlene. When the group had their late afternoon snooze, so much of the time the two girls lay next to one another, and I often saw them seeking out one another's company. One time, when the chimps were going indoors for the evening and getting all excited, Charlene started screaming as some of the other chimps pushed her out of the way. It was Suzie that went up to her and gave her a big reassuring hug.




Azie and friends having an afternoon nap. Azie is a very clever girl when it comes to the use of tools. She always seemed to spend so much more time then any of the others using rocks to crack open nuts, and using sticks to fish for goodies out of the pseudo termite mound. Azie is also one pretty girl!




My favourite chimpanzee, Charlene. She doesn't quite have Azie's knack for tool-use.
One time, Charlene spent several minutes watching Suzie cracking open a nut with a rock, staring intently at her as she worked away. When Suzie moved off, Charlene picked up the rock, studied it carefully as if thinking 'I know this thing is involved in some way...', and then proceeded to put the rock to one side and bash the nut with her fist instead!
Charlene isn't as quick on her feet as the other chimps, which is thought to be the result of a thiamine deficiency when she was younger. She can certainly give a good account of herself though, and beats her chest and tummy when annoyed.
 Some of my best memories of Chimp Eden were watching the chimpanzees playing together, it was really special to see them enjoying themselves so much considering what difficult backgrounds they all have. One such highlight was watching a very long and energetic play session between to of the bushmeat orphans, Mowgli and Charlene. I've recorded a bit of it on video, and will hopefully be uploading it to Youtube soon.


I took this photo after Mowgli and Charlene were playing together, and he put her arm around her. :)


This trip was an incredible experience for me, it has only solidified my passion for the great apes. I left with different ideas of what my eventual goals are. On my way home I visited Taronga Zoo in Sydney, which was a huge contrast to the peaceful sanctuary at which I'd spent the past weeks. I now have higher personal standards in my ideals of how captive apes should be kept. My career goal is still to work as a great ape caregiver at a zoo or sanctuary, but I now have different ideas of what sorts of zoos I'd like to work at. Spending time with chimpanzees living in spacious accommodation, with opportunities to socialize, plenty for them to do and opportunities to get out of each other's way and out of sight of their human observers, gave me a clear view of what I think all captive apes should be given.

I'll sign off with one more photo of dear Charlene, such a gorgeous hairy girl. I feel so lucky to be able to spend time with her and all the other wonderful chimpanzees.

Visit to Perth

I had a great week in Perth, it was nice to spend time in a different state. I thought the city of Perth was fantastic, it was really nice to look at as it was surrounded by the Swan River, and it was much better for shopping than Adelaide. My favourite part of the shopping areas would have to be Ye London Court. :)




I really enjoyed Perth Zoo, I spent most of the time watching and photographing the zoo's many orangutans, including Puan, the mother of my old friend Pusung. She's estimated to be 55 years old, so she really is a grand old lady. Several of her daughters, Puteri, Punya and Pulang are still living at Perth Zoo, her granddaughter Temara was the first zoo-born orangutan to be released into the wild, and her great grandson, Semeru joined Temara late last year in the Sumatran rainforest. I think Puan is looking amazing for her age!




Here is Puan's daughter Puteri, and Puteri's baby girl Teliti








I found Perth's orangutan set up very interesting, each of the eight enclosures housed either a single orangutan, or two, usually mother and child. The enclosures weren't huge but had climbing equipment and places where the orangutans could hide and rest whilst being high off the ground. The orangutans spent most of the time I was there up on the climbing frames and platforms, rather than on the ground as I often see zoo orangutans.

Much as I enjoyed Perth, and catching up with my dad and stepmum, I was so happy to see Bella again when I got home, I missed her a LOT!


Nyaru on his mother, Negara

A brief glimpse of Sekara and her new infant, Sungai

Hello!

I've started this blog to post about anything interesting I might be up to, rather than using my two other blogs. Expect to see lots of posts about apes, Salukis and other interesting things.

I visited Monarto Zoo to see the chimpanzees for the first time since January on Thursday. They are so amazing to watch and I love photographing them. There was a bit of displaying from the alpha male Tsotsi during the day, but mostly everyone was pretty chilled out.

 Very soon I will be going on holiday to Perth for about a week, visiting my dad. I'm really looking forward to it but I think I'm going to miss Bella A LOT! She will be staying with a very good friend, Dimity, and her lovely Greyhound boy, Elvis, whom Bella adores. I think I will miss Bella more than she's going to miss me! While in Perth, I'm hoping to visit Perth Zoo so there may be some photos added to the blog in a week or so of the beautiful animals there. We're also going to the theatre to see the musical 'Mary Poppins', which I am super excited about- the film is one of my favourites and I LOVE musicals. :D


 One of my favourite photos from my recent visit to Monarto Zoo was this one of Zombi's (the eldest female)hands and feet. I took it while she was relaxing indoors.I also love this one of the beautiful Galatea, who is my favourite chimp.