Continuing with the Bristol Zoo gorillas on Thursdays. Silverback chooses his favourite food first or is it a case of saving the best till last?
This is Jock. He's the silverback from the Bristol Zoo in England. It's the second feed of the day and Jock gets fed separately on the second feed. He's got lots of veg to choose from, a sack of something, a surprise and some food pellets. You would probably think he goes for the veg first, but as Oumbi the silverback from the Twycross Zoo, Jock seems to prefer the food pellets over everything. Secondly, he goes for the sack. He tries to figure out where the opening is for the sack. He still has to check below to see if his veg is all still there. He has a good rummage around the sack and finds all the leaves. Once he finishes with the leaves, he moves on to the vegetables. Just look at him, he tries to carry as much as he can. Two peppers in his mouth and as much other stuff as he can carry. He takes it all onto the glass platform. The gorilla enclosure used to be a giraffe enclosure and when it got transformed into the gorilla enclosure they put some glass flooring in the middle, for the gorillas to walk on so they can see us below and we have a unique view of them. The trouble is, the glass is pretty scratched and it's quite difficult to get clear footage.
Some info on the Bristol Zoo you might like:
The first Gorilla arrived at Bristol zoo in 8th September 1930 named Alfred. The Zoo itself opened in July 11th 1836! The first gorilla birth was on the March 6th 1971.
Currently, there are 7 gorillas at the Bristol Zoo.
Starting of with Jock the Silverback, he was born on the May 31st 1983 at Zoo La Palmyre. He got moved to the Bristol Zoo on the 25.June.2003. His offspring are: Namoki, Komale, Kukena, Afia, Ayana.
Kera was born on the August 26th 2004 at the Parc Zoológic de Barcelona. She moved to the Bristol zoo on the 08.September.2008. Her offspring is Afia.
Afia was born by emergency cesarean section at Bristol Zoo on the 12th of February 2016 after her mother, Kera, showed symptoms of potentially life-threatening pre-eclampsia. She had to be hand-raised. Gorilla Romina took an interest in Afia when the keepers walked past her Afia on their arm. So Afia was slowly introduced to Romina and in October started bonding with her surrogate mother. Kera did recover after being ill for a while but didn't recognize Afia as her daughter. Romina took over to raise her, but sadly they had to put her to sleep in Aug 2018 because she had an advanced large cancerous mass in her abdomen. Afia by then was part of the group and dad Jock and the other females looked after her.
Touni was born on the 12th of December 2007 at the La Vallée des Singes and got moved to the Bristol Zoo on the 28.September 2015. Her daughter is Ayana who was born on the 22nd of April 2017. Jock is the dad of Afia and Ayana.
Kala was born on the 11th of December 2010 in Hannover. She's the newest member of the group as she joined on the 16.October.2018. She was pregnant in Sep 2019, but sadly lost the baby. The cause of death is unknown.
Kukena was born on the 27th of September 2011 at Bristol Zoo and the father is Jock. She hasn't got any offspring yet and is soon to be moved.
Filmed before the Coronavirus.
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