Oumbi the Silverback is the mate of Ozala. They’ve got their offspring Lope and Shufai with them at the Twycross Zoo.
It started all outside. When Gorilla Biddy the mother of Ozala was in the mood for some attention from Oumbi. You can tell by the behaviour of Biddy when she’s slapping her behind. Oumbi doesn’t take up on this offer at first and just storms past her.
When they’re all back inside, Oumbi shows off his muscles by chasing Asante away, as he’s not interested at all in her. He keeps charging through the inside of their enclosure. Then Biddy and Oumbi face each other. Shufai walking past, he knows something is up. Suddenly Oumbi hits the metal door and starts charging again. I’m surprised Shufai didn’t jump out of the way. He was quite calm and didn’t move that much. Oumbi now closer to the window and once more he slams his fist into the wall and charges again to the other side and another charge. Standing next to the window again, Lope his son comes close and starts sniffing carefully. Oumbi still very much on edge. Moving some wood wool, but ready to charge again. Lope still next to his dad.
I missed it when he started charging again and this time he did his business with Biddy in the far corner. It was really busy and I couldn’t move to avoid the bad glare from the window.
The last thing you need is your kids watching and poking you while you’re doing your stuff, but that’s what Lope is doing. He keeps poking Oumbi with his finger and Shufai is watching as well. When Lope moves in front of Oumbi’s head, the silverback gets up and all hell breaks loose. Lope is screaming as loud as he can and beating his chest. Shufai is screaming too. Then Lope chasing after his charging dad, still screaming which brings Ozala out from the back. Who starts screaming as well and going for her mum Biddy. Biddy in return goes for Ozala. Then Oumbi comes charging and he goes for Biddy, pins her down and then pushes her against the wall. Biddy tries to defend herself by pushing back and then chasing after Oumbi with Lope chasing after Oumbi as well. After that everything quiets down again, with everybody avoiding Oumbi for a while and by late afternoon all was forgotten again.
A day that started quite qualm and everybody just resting exhausted from the heat wave ended up to be quite a rough day. As you know Gorillas do mate with other females, which is natural, but Ozalas reaction does make me think, do gorillas get jealous? So many questions. Why did Lope think it was a good idea to poke his dad and started screaming and beat his chest. Why Biddy, she is about 46 and I'm not sure if she's still fertile. He tried avoiding Biddy at first , by just charging through the house. Did Oumbi really want to mate with Biddy or did he just do it because he feels it's his duty? I really don't know. What do you think?
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