Tsotsi

Nothing I write here is from Adelaide Zoo or Monarto Zoo themselves. This is just observations I've made from visits and information from articles.
Tsotsi was born at Adelaide Zoo on the 25th of June 1989 to Fimi and Peter. Fimi now lives in New Zealand with her daughter, Sanda and Peter is deceased. Although Tsotsi is the current chimpanzee boss, it may very well change in the near future as two new males, Gombe and Boyd, are joining his little group very soon. It'll be very interesting to see how things play out.
Earlier this year, Tsotsi moved to Monarto Zoo and met another male, Sandali. Tsots is shorter than Sandali, but a lot stockier and can puff himself up to an impressive size when he dispays. As the dominant of the two, Tsotsi can be quite serious but he has a definite fun side as well. On my last visit, it was Tsotsi that started the chasing game, banging the floor and showing Sandali a lovely play face.
When Tsotsi was at Adelaide Zoo he sometimes looked like he wanted someone to play with him- the girls weren't interested. Sometimes Tsotsi would roll over on his back and jump around, but only once did I see his mum and sister play with him. For that reason, I'm really glad that Tsotsi has a playful younger male like Sandali for company. He often let the girls take food or carefully prepared tools from him.
While he was at Adelaide Zoo, Tsotsi did several paintings that were sold to raise money for his new habitat and for chimps in the wild. The paintings were beautiful, the colours and patterns looked really well thought through. One painting in particular was outstanding, and I really wish I'd have had enough to purchase it.
For a while, the enclosure next to the chimps at Adelaide was occupied by a pair of female gorillas, Safiri and Anguka. The three chimps, and especially Tsotsi, displayed at them and launched missiles over the dividing wall. Just before the gorillas left for Europe, I managed to catch one of Tsotsi's gorilla displays on video, hurling a stick at them from on top of a pole.
I am really looking forward to seeing Tsotsi more in the wonderful new environment he is in.