Visit to See the Chimpanzees

I went to Monarto Zoo yesterday with my mother and true to form, spent the whole time at the chimpanzee enclosure.


Galatea
When we got there, all the chimps were in the playroom. Boyd was using the feeding puzzle, Tsotsi was grooming Soona, Sandali and Gombe were relaxing on one side of the room, Zwala and Zombi were on the other side, and Galatea was snoozing on one of the platforms in the middle. Sandali had many nasty wounds as a result of all the changes that had been happening in the group. As the lowest ranking male, he'd clearly been copping it. Tsotsi was walking strangely on one hand, and it turned out that he had a small wound on one of his knuckles. Soona had some injuries, but I think they were mostly the same ones she had two weeks ago. When I finally saw Zombi properly, I noticed that unlike when I last saw her, both her eyes were fully open.
Zombi and Zwala spent most of the time I was there grooming each other behind a large branch so I didn't really see them very much.

Boyd and Tsotsi groomed each other a lot as usual, but they were sometimes joined by Soona or Sandali or both of them. At one point Sandali was watching the two of them grooming and kept standing up as if he was deciding whether or not to join them. He looked quite nervous but eventually joined them and enthusiastically groomed Tsotsi.


Soona, Tsotsi and Boyd in the grooming group, Sandali is part of the group too, lying behind them (you can just see his arm)
Sandali looked very sorry for himself, and was limping from a large cut on his foot. Twice Galatea came over to him to groom his sore foor, which was really nice. Later, Soona spent quite a while grooming Sandali as well.



Galatea grooming Sandali's wound on his foot


Soona grooming Sandali
When the chimps (except for Soona) went outside for their treats during the keeper talk Gombe was in 'look-how-tough-I-am' mode. Almost whole time he was outside he had his hair bristled and he swaggered and strutted around. He got hold of a ball that someone had taken out from the playroom and after a bit of swaying in two legs and hooting he threw it at the school children who were listening to the keeper talk. Gombe then started intimidating Sandali, displaying at him at at one point jumping on him and giving him a smack. Sandali screamed and ran to Tsotsi and Boyd who were getting all excited by the whole thing. Not surprisingly, very soon it was just the males outside as the ladies had gone back in presumably for some peace! Gombe displayed at Sandali a couple more times, but not really getting violent, before finding another ball to throw at the people watching. he then went inside where he lay on his back, feet in the air, looking very pleased with himself!


Sandali acts submissively to Gombe
Later, something happening in the keeper area caught the chimps' attention and all the boys and Soona bristled up their hair and charged over. I found it interesting that Soona was the only female to go stomping over with the boys, while the others just looked over with mild interest. Soona seems to get on very well with the males, she seems to spend more time with them than the others.
Just before we were leaving, Galatea and Gombe both went outside. After wandering around on their own for a little while they groomed each other. It was nice to see because Galatea had spent most of the time I was there keeping herself to herself.


Gombe and the first ball

Chimpanzee Girls!! (and other bits)

 Soona being groomed by Zwala

First off, I would like to encourage everyone to vote every day in November to help get a large grant for the Center for Great Apes. They do such amazing work for captive chimpanzees and orangutans and this could really make a big difference to the male orangutans who need new enclosures as they grow up!


Much has been happening in Monarto Zoo's growing chimpanzee group-
The four female chimps from the Netherlands arrived in Adelaide in early October and after spending their quarantine period at Adelaide Zoo, they recently moved in to Monarto Zoo's chimp house. On Saturday they met the males and when I visited them all for they first time yesterday all eight were living together.

  The chimps had access to two areas away from public viewing, so quite a bit of the time most of them were out the back where I couldn't see them, which is fair enough- they've had a lot going on recently! When I first got there, the chimps were all let into the main playroom so I was able to see all of them, it was quite strange seeing so many chimps as I was used to just the four males!


Zombi

I was able to tell the girls apart pretty quickly, Zombi, the oldest, is very large and masculine looking, Soona has large floppy ears, long hair and a bit of a belly, Zwala is small, with a dark, thin face, Galatea is almost as small as Zwala, with a pale chin and is very dainty.

Most of the time it was just Zwala and Zombi in the playroom, Galatea came in occasionally, and Soona came in even less often as she was busy spending time with the boys. Later in the day when the boys came back in to the playroom, Soona was right behind them and showed a lot of interest in Tsotsi, but gave him a bit of a slap at one point. When Tsotsi and Gombe were displaying, Soona didn't move out of the way straight away and tried to hold her own. At one point she displayed at Tsotsi a little bit!


Soona

Galatea made an impressive nest in the corner of the playroom floor with a couple of hessian sacks for extra comfort. Seeing this, Zombi came over and started making her own nest next to it. She then reached over and casually stole one of Galatea's sacks, and when Galatea walked off to fetch herself another one to replace it Zombi helped herself to Galatea's whole nest! Luckily for Galatea, she appears very good at nest construction and made in even bigger one filled with blankets very quickly. Galatea's ex-nest must not have been quite good enough for Zombi as she ended up moving a load of woodwool up next to Zwala, who had built her nest on top of the platform, and making a new one.


Galatea

When I did see Sandali, he was in the thick of things, at one point huddled up around a feeding toy with Galatea and Zombi. It was nice to see because Sandali does seem to spend a lot of his time alone. I hardly saw Boyd at all, but I could just see him in the off exhibit area grooming with Tsotsi. Tsotsi and Gombe came in a bit more often, and both of them displayed a bit. Gombe's display largely consisted of him swaggering around on two legs in an impressive manner.


 Sandali

The females appear a lot more agile than the males, Zwala in particular seems to be quite the gymnast. She spent much of the afternoon having a snooze in her nest, but took an interest to the magazines that had food hidden inside. Zwala spent a long time leafing through the magazine, and then took it with her when she built a new nest- perhaps for reading in bed!


Zwala and her magazine

I had a lovely time watching the new girls, and of course the lovely boys. I should be going to visit them again next week which I am greatly looking forward to.