New male gorilla arriving soon
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Kesho, an eleven year old male gorilla will be arriving from Dublin Zoo by the end of the month.
After the sad death of Yeboah in March, our female gorillas have been managing on their own.
Although this has been fine so far, in the wild gorillas live in groups headed by a male, and we are keen to ensure that their complex social structure is replicated as closely as possible here at the zoo.
Bringing in a new male is always difficult, but the situation at ZSL London Zoo is complicated by the pregnancy of one of the females, Mjukuu, by Yeboah.
The European Endangered Species Breeding Programme (EEP) for gorillas has recommended that we bring a male into the group as soon as we can so that he is well integrated by the time the baby is born in November.
Working with the EEP we have identified Kesho at Dublin Zoo as being a male of the right age and temperament to give us the best chance of a successful introduction.
It’s still risky, but the keepers will be working 24/7 to make sure everything is right for the group, and everyone at ZSL will be supporting those keepers.
We look forward to Kesho joining the zoo family. He won’t be on show for a number of weeks while he settles in, but we hope visitors will be able to see him living happily with the females soon.
