Emma and Pitchou Villas Schematic of Habitat 1 Bonz Villa
All photos by Jane or Steuart Dewar,
unless otherwise indicated.
Note: almost all photographs are
thumbnails that you can click to bring up a larger version!
by Jane Dewar, 27Aug2003
Joe's been enjoying his first summer at Gorilla Haven, and is settled into an easy routine, typical of a gorilla's life, in captivity and in the wild: eating, napping and patrolling. We're finally seeing signs of progress in the construction of the 3 remaining villas - Bonz, Emma and Pitchou, which will have their metal outer walls finished, before the steel bars of the cagework are installed. Now that the weather has cooperated, things are moving along steadily, with all 3 villas going up one after another. The construction workers are kept at a distance from Joe, who's in Silverback Villa, but he can see and listen to the workers and seems to enjoy the distractions.
Emma and Pitchou
Villas
Schematic of
Habitat
1
Bonz Villa
Bonz Villa is named after a gorilla (photo
left as a baby and right as an adult by his
keeper, Phil Ridges) now living in England at Port Lympne, in an all male group. His real name is Mataki, but when he was a small baby, the keepers started calling him Bonz (reasons are unclear) and the name stuck, much to the dismay of the Aspinalls. I first met Bonz when he was a toddler and
he was just sooooooo cute, I was instantly smitten. His personality and thumb-sucking only add to his charm.
Pitchou
(left) and Emma (below) are two gorillas at the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon featured on our website's
Limbe connection. Their villas were originally going to be named after two baby gorillas I first met in 1990 at the Cincinnati Zoo - Penny and Milt.
Penny is now at San Diego, California, and Milt has recently been moved to
Topeka, Kansas. But when we realized the villa names were going to be used frequently, we changed them to the Cameroon gorillas, naming the mountain hollows nearby after Penny and Milt instead.
The photos on the left show Pitchou and Emma soon after arriving at Limbe (photos
courtesy of LWC),and the photos at right
show them as of today...
Silverback Villa got its name when we first named the ridge on which it stands, Silverback Ridge. Initially we weren't sure if there was room for a villa on top of the ridge, so while we were surveying the area, etc, the possible villa was referred to as Silverback Villa and the name just stuck, although I now call Silverback Ridge "Mount Kabako" after Joe's given name.
Joe seems to have forgiven me for leaving him for those several weeks in May when I was in Africa, although he still makes it clear I am not at the beloved status of his caregivers, Pete and Kelly, or his favorite "enrichment" - our maintenance guy, Ted. Ted has never worked around gorillas before, but has a nice, quiet and easy-going manner, which Joe enjoys, so sometimes if Ted is working outside where Joe can see him, Kelly has to get Ted to move, in order to "lure" Joe into a cage she needs him to go to. It's pretty funny, actually, and during lunch hours, Ted's been known to get his guitar out to practice, while Joe chills nearby looking at Ted admiringly, as Kelly just observes bemused.
Enriching the Days of Joe's Life
Kelly's our enrichment tour-de-force, racking her brain to think of different ways of presenting Joe's food each day, as well as making his days a bit more interesting and varied. I think Pete and Joe are quite happy to leave things the way they are, as long as the food/routine is the same, but at least Pete has a wider "home range" than Joe, who's still restricted to the 1,700 square feet of villa dedicated just to him (ie: excluding keeper areas, hallways, etc), until we get part of the habitat ready for him later this summer or early this fall, depending on weather and construction issues. And since Joe is alone, he lacks the social stimulation/challenges most other captive gorillas have, so we try to keep Joe's mind active by presenting him fun challenges and a variety to his routine.
To me, it seems Joe tends to think of enrichment as a way of entertaining the humans around him. He enjoys the treat log and roof-feeding, where he must "work at" getting favorite goodies like romaine lettuce, green beans, celery and corn on the cob. He's got to manipulate the food to fit thru the two inch mesh, and while he's got the same types of food favorites in his easily-accessible food basket below, each evening he goes straight up to the brachiating bars to "work" for his dinner on top of the world. Clearly, if he didn't enjoy this, he'd stay on the ground and eat the goodies from the food basket, but we believe he enjoys the challenge as much as we enjoy watching him.
Photo descriptions, left to right: Scarecrow for Joe, done as a surprise by Kelly, which Joe just ignored; Joe chilling in his kudzu covered cage; Joe picking out goodies from an ice treat; Kelly offering Joe his favorite, "Naked Juice," a special treat purchased with the donation from Joe's old human friend from his time in Denver - thanks Carolyn Clarke; Joe strolling looking for other hidden treasures Kelly's left for him to discover; The "apple-green-bean monster," one of Jane's "inventions" combining two of Joe's favorite foods; Joe roof-feeding, working romaine lettuce leaves through the mesh, while sitting on the brachiating bars of one of his two inside cages . All photos by Kelly Daugherty except the "apple-green-bean monster" (Steuart Dewar) and the one featuring Kelly giving Joe his "Naked Juice", which was taken by Stephanie Scanlin, during her recent visit.
All of us are now not convinced Joe is the "brat" or "problem"
animal we'd heard about. When Stephanie Scanlin, his former keeper in Texas who worked at GH for Joe's first 4 months, visited recently, after about 6 weeks away, Joe just did a double take, strolled over to the mesh to study her more closely, then sat back, relaxed and spent the remainder of the visit rumbling and enjoying the company.
It's a good lesson - not to "label" animals or people, since a change in environment, can make all the difference in the world. I think Joe will enjoy it once other gorillas are nearby.
Steuart and I went on the first vacation we've had since 1995 - 4 days of relaxing in Puerto Rico. I hadn't seen Joe in about a week and when I visited him, bearing gifts of corn on the cob and an apple, Joe was relaxed and calm, with no charging or displaying. When Joe is relaxed and wants something from you, he'll sit there and snap his fingers or clap his hands, which is his way of "asking" for a treat. Usually, we don't oblige him, but we do acknowledge his request, telling him we don't have anything to offer at the time. After all, it's clear what he's "saying" and we don't want to be rude by ignoring his request. I put in the corn for Joe, who took one bite, then, while holding the partially eaten corn in one hand, he looked at me,
tilted his head and then snapped the fingers of his other hand, as if to say
"Ok, corn-schmorn. It's August and GH is up to its ears (pun intended) in corn … What else do you got, lady?"
Joe knows me well, and sure enough I had a small Granny Smith apple in my pocket, which I cut up and tossed in, making Joe "work" for it. He's keeping to a steady weight of about 350 pounds and looks amazingly healthy for an old man (40 is old for a gorilla), so
healthy treats are part of his enrichment regimen too.
When Joe has his dinner and as his caregivers are doing their evening routine of locking up, etc, Joe apparently has a routine of his own. When Kelly is about to close the door, she'll say
"Goodnight Joe, see you in the morning" and without fail, Joe responds with a happy food rumble-purr, letting us know, all's well in Joe World.