Ezzy's Apenheul gorilla's

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Ezzy's Apenheul gorilla's

Photo's and general information of the gorilla's living at Apenheul, Netherlands At Apenheul the gorilla's have a huge island to roam around on.

A bit about myself: I do not work at Apenheul, I'm just a visitor with a great passion for gorilla's. What I love most about my visits to Apenheul is arriving early, walking immediately to the gorilla's and sit down and observe them; it's like having some "alone-time" with them. Then I watch them in their most natural behaviour (as far as that is possible in a zoo). This makes it great to observe

and photograph them (if they chose to be on the side you can see :) ). I've had several sources to write down the history of the Apenheul gorilla's. I've done it to my best knowledge. For people that can read Dutch I can recommend the book by Constanze Mager called "Apenliefde", which is about the complete history of Apenheul. Big thanks to Gerald Postma for sharing part of his photo collection. I'm very appreciative he wants to share those old Apenheul photo's. If you have old photo's of Apenheul gorilla's that you would like to share, please do so. There is just not enough around on the internet :)

22/12/2023

Er is er 1 jarig hoera, hoera
Dat kun je wel zien dat is JABARI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11 jaar! Gefeliciteerd lieve poeperd!

Jabari 11 years old today.
To celebrate, a whole lot of old photo's from 2013 until 2015. And it's always a good moment (for me) to remember his mother Lobo as well

11/12/2023

Bao Bao and Kiango eating, August 2022

11/12/2023

As requested a video of Bao Bao with his son Kiango from earlier this year (probably already posted before)

This one is from April 2023

09/12/2023

The first photo I made of them this year, in alphabetical order

27/11/2023

Jabari

26/11/2023

Alvast een voorproefje op Banjoko, die naar Apenheul gaat komen :)

Foto 1, 2 en 3 zijn gemaakt door Arjan Haverkamp
Foto 4 is gemaakt door Mike Rodenburg

18/11/2023

Dalila was born in the wild in Cameroon in 1972. On 30th November 1974 she arrives at Copenhagen Zoo where she will stay until 19th September 1991. With Samson she has a baby on 1st November 1985, but Goko dies on 28th November 1986 due to intestinal colon infection.

On 19th September 1991 she arrived at Apenheul. Dalila has got such an explosive character that she was dominating the silverback and other females at Copenhagen. The first introduction with Bongo at Apenheul didn't go smoothly either. But after another try Dalila accepted Bongo as the leader and she became the alpha female.

What I can't find in the Apenheul information is that she was first connected to Kibabu on Apenheul. Apparently she had a baby with Kibabu in 1993. Sadly this baby died of whooping cough after 6 months.

With Bongo she has 3 beautiful daughters. Miliki is born on 25th December 1994 and moved to Blackpool Zoo on 17th November 2003, where she has a daughter Meisie in 2010 and in 2017 she has a son Makari.
Kisiwa is the 2nd daughter, born on 17th May 1997. Kisiwa also has a daughter, Chama, in 2011. She moved to Safaripark Beekse Bergen and there she has daughter Mies in 2019.
Gyasi is the 3rd daughter with Bongo, she is born on 29th April 2002. Gyasi inherited her mother's explosive and rebellious character. And also Gyasi had a daughter, Tayari, in 2011. In 2021 Gyasi had a son Kiango with Bao Bao. Sadly she passed away in 2022.

When Jambo arrived at Apenheul in 2006 there was a big problem with Dalila. She wouldn't accept Jambo as her leader. To keep the peace in the group it was decided that Dalila would move to Gaia Park in Kerkrade to live with Makula (a son of Bongo). She moved there on 14th April 2009.

On 27th August 2011 she had a son with Makula, named Tano. Sadly he passed away on 28th February 2012 due to intestinal infection & pneumonia. Dalila wouldn't let go of the dead baby and carried it with her for quite some time. This is filmed for the Dutch animal TV series "Drukte in de dierentuin". It's a very sad sight to see, but it does show the mourning ritual of a gorilla mother who has lost her baby.

On 31th December 2012 Dalila had another son with Makula, Ayo. By now, 2023, Ayo is living in a bachelor group in Zoo Safari de Thoiry.

Today Dalila is the oldest living gorilla in the Netherlands and she is still living at Gaia Zoo.

18/11/2023

And the last one for today (also 2018). Closeup of Iriki at the end.

18/11/2023

The last video I made of Jambo in 2018

18/11/2023

A short video of Jambo, Tayari & Jabari in 2018

18/11/2023

Happy birthday Jambo!
30 years old today

16/11/2023

A second silverback is coming to Apenheul. Hopefully he will join Chama and Jabari.

Waiting with anticipation on more news once he has settled.

12/11/2023

Kiango was hanging around Mintha. BB arrived and pushed Kiango away. Pretty quick it became clear why. Kiango had a closer inspection on what was happening ;)

12/11/2023

05/11/2023

Bao Bao

03/11/2023

Kiango

28/10/2023

BB was just relaxing when suddenly someone was dangling upside down above him and wanted to play :D

23/10/2023

Throwback Monday: Jambo back in 2018

21/10/2023

Het voordeel van een bosrijke omgeving is dat je gewoon de eikeltjes voor het oprapen hebt :)

Jabari in actie

19/10/2023

Mintha

15/10/2023

Happy 16th birthday to Mapasa (now living in Al Ain Zoo).
This photo was taken the last time I saw him back in 2018.

Son of Kisiwa and Jambo, raised by Mandji
Big brother of Chama

13/10/2023

Chama at work

10/10/2023

Dalila (ex Apenheuler) in action ... no need to turn on the sound, it's just other visitors you hear (Ezzy is still too lazy to figure out how to put some great music behind a video -or has other things to do- :P )

06/10/2023

Chama

06/10/2023

Kiango casually walking towards BB trying to steal dad's food. But BB saw him coming and quickly picked it up to eat it himself :D

06/10/2023

Actionshot of Kiango today

17/09/2023

M'Fugaji

15/09/2023

How the little prince enters the Bongo Bonde

12/09/2023

Dalila

Mother of Miliki, Kisiwa, Gyasi and Ayo

Grandmother of:
Meisie and Makari (mother Miliki; Blackpool)
Mapasa, Chama and Mies (mother Kisiwa; Apenheul/Safaripark Beekse Bergen)
Tayari and Kiango (mother Gyasi; Apenheul)

Great-grandmother of Jabali (mother Tayari; Taipei)

Now living at Gaia Zoo

10/09/2023

Kiango trying to make clear to the keeper that he also wants a tomato ...

09/09/2023

BB & son

08/09/2023

Bao Bao yesterday

07/09/2023

Is it wise to hold your food up in the air like that?
Even if you are the big silverback of the group ...

The answer is of course "no", because there was M'Fugaji who grabbed it out of his hand and ran off.

BB went after her with Kiango behind him, but M'Fugaji was simply too fast.

01/09/2023

I still miss her a lot.
Watching the gorilla's at Apenheul is definitely not the same without her on the island.

Just keeping her memory alive

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