Monday, July 6, 2009

gorillas


Jonesy (Oscar Jonesy)


Zura


Bawang


Monifa


Nneka

the gorilla's are the giraffes nieghbors. possibly the most well known baby gorilla at this moment in time is hasani the 7 month old western lowland gorilla. he belongs to the jones family troop, headed by his papa oscar jonesy (named for his papa oscar and his mama jonesie), they call him OJ, but i prefer to just refer to him as jonesy. he is easy to spot being the only male (silverback) in the troop. he's a big impressive guy, very interesting to watch. he has a pretty intense stare, although i don't think he likes to make eye contact! this is jonesy's second time calling the sfzoo home. he first came here in 1982 from the columbus zoo where he was born on 7.31.81. he was moved to buffalo in 1987, but returned in 2005. ... zura, who is jonesy's half sister came to the sfzoo from the columbus zoo in 1982 with him. she celebrates her birthday on 9.13.81. you can tell zura as she's the gal with the high hair! ... bawang is the oldest on the troop celebrating her 28th birthday next monday (born on 7.13.80 at the cinncinati zoo). she came to sfzoo in 1981 at just over a year old. bawang is a treasure as she has stepped in and learned what it took to be hasani's surrogate mama. BRAVO! bawang and staff for making this happen! you can most likely spot bawang as the one closest to hasani. you can also see him with his auntie zura, who hangs close by him too. ... monifa is hasani's birth mom, but for a first time mom (jonesy's first born too!) didn't have any mothering reference and unfortunately decided it wasn't her thing. monifa came to sfzoo maybe two years ago from seattle on a breeding recommendation with jonesy. she celebrates her birthday on 1.3.98 i tell her from the other gals by the reddish color her hair sometimes has in the sun. ... nneka is the youngest girl born at sfzoo on 9.23.98. her mama is bawang. her papa was kubi, the troop leader before jonesy. he and bawang had three babies together (son's shango and barney were moved to sedgewck zoo in 2004) and were companions for over 20 years. kubi is the brother of the world famous sign language gorilla koko (who just celebrated her 38th bday!). they were both born at the sfzoo. nneka is not only the youngest, but the smallest of the adult girls. i also can tell her from the others as to me her face is rounder. ... photos are, jonesy (i like this one cuz he looks like he is smiling), zura, bawang, monifa (a couple days before hasani was born) and nneka.

find out more about the sf zoo gorilla troop at http://www.gorillagestures.info/ this is a great site by someone who has spent many hours observing and documenting their behaviors. there are pix, bios, and video clips! thankx joanne for this site and for letting me share it here!

2 comments:

  1. Did you see the article in the latest "Zoo Views" about Hasani? Pretty cool!

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  2. i finally got to reading the article! yes it was a good one! i'm glad they included a few new pix, my favorite is the one with handsome peeking out of the giraffe cut out!

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