pusung

I'm Fundraising for Orangutans in Memory of Beautiful Pusung!

I'm Fundraising for Orangutans in Memory of Beautiful Pusung!

Gombe- the Teenager

Gombe was born on the 4th of February 1993 at Wellington Zoo and his father is Boyd.

He is the darkest in colour of Monarto Zoo's four male chimps and has a bit of a belly on him. Other distinguishing features include a pink harelip, spiky hair on his head and a prominent beard. The second youngest in the group at the moment, Gombe is quite a handsome guy.

Gombe is a really interesting chimpanzee to watch, he can be a bit of a troublemaker, trying to stir the others up. I haven't seen him displaying for a while now, but when he does it is very impressive- not only does he charge around with his hair on end, he also swings and jumps around a lot (much more so than Tsotsi does when he's displaying) and can be quite noisy.

When the chimps were given mirrors recently, Gombe was intrigued but ended up using his mirror to check out is rude bits from different angles.

Gombe spends a lot of time with Boyd and Tsotsi.

Boyd- The Alpha Male

Now I'm going to properly introduce the two NZ boys starting with Boyd.

Born on 29th October 1978, Boyd is the oldest of the chimpanzees at Monarto Zoo and is the father of Gombe. He is now the dominant male, which means he can have first pickings in whatever food is on offer- which must be a good thing!

Boyd is easily recognisable as most of his left ear is missing from a fight back at Wellington Zoo. He has a white beard that stretches under his cheeks, hair missing on his neck and the hair on the back of his head sticks up a bit. He's a little scarred on his face from a fight a while back but it's looking better.

Boyd spends loads of time with Tsotsi, who really seems to look up to him. They groom each other a lot and sometimes just relax together. They are often joined by Gombe and sometimes Sandali. Despite being the dominant male, I don't see Boyd displaying very often compared to Tsotsi and Gombe. He seems to be a lot more mature in that he doesn't stir up trouble really. I think he's going to be a great alpha male, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he makes of the new lady chimps that will be joining the group in the near future.

 As he has many relatives in the region, Boyd has been vasectomised to won't be fathering any babies. He has bred before, and Gombe is proof.

Boyd (standing) and Sandali

Chimpanzee update

I’ve not updated this blog for a little while, so I’m going to mention some interesting observations from my visits to see the chimpanzees at Monarto Zoo.

Gombe and Sandali playing

-On the 17th of December I saw the four lovely lads outside in their large new enclosure for the first time. The weather wasn’t wonderful so they weren’t outside very long. In fact, no one seemed keen until lunch was scattered outside, and even then they came back in with their food quite quickly. Sandali went back out a bit later and sat outside to eat some fruit.

-On the 23rd of January the boys stayed outside in the sunshine the whole time I was there, the highlight was seeing Sandali playing with Gombe. I’d never seen this before and it was lovely to see they were both so happy in each other’s company. Sandali in particular had a great big smiley play face. Another high point was seeing the chimps climbing trees which I’d not seen them do before.

-The chimpanzees have been using the fake termite mound quite a lot. It is filled with treats for them to get out using tools. The chimps I see using it most are Gombe and Tsotsi.

-On the 3rd of March the chimps were indoors and there was a bit of a disagreement over something (not sure what). Boyd displayed a bit and Tsotsi was frightened, showing his teeth in a fear grin. Sandali rushed over to Tsotsi and gave him a hug and a pat to calm him down. Shortly after, the two of them lay down together and occasionally groomed each other. It was nice to see them getting on so well.

Gombe

Tsotsi and Boyd

Gombe and Boyd

I visited Monarto Zoo on the last day of September and was able to see the new boys properly for the first time. Boyd and Gombe are still separated from the others by mesh, but apparently they've been showing good signs of getting along. They were all a lot calmer than when I visited them last. Gombe and Boyd were in the main area which meant I was able to get some decent photos of them.
Gombe is veeery handsome and seemed very interested in the volunteers working on his new outdoor enclosure. He was very quick to get his hands on their enrichment items, pieces of fire hose filled with rice and was the first to use a stick to get it out. Gombe's dad Boyd looks a lovely fellow, he spent most of the hour I was there with a blanket, either snuggled up or walking around with it over his face.The two groups mostly ignored each other, whereas the last time everyone was displaying when they were given enrichment.
The two new boys are just out of quarantine.I was told that Boyd will be properly introduced to Sandali, and then Tsotsi will join them, then Gombe.

Here's some photos of Boyd:





and Gombe (he's also the chimp in the photo on top of the post):