Bokito (Gorilla)
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Bokito (born March 14, 1996 in Berlin ) is a male western gorilla .
After his birth in the Berlin Zoological Garden , he was rejected by his mother M′penzi and raised by human carers. In August 2005 he was brought to the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam , where he has lived since then. As the dominant silverback of his family, he had six offspring by 2014, all female, five of which are still alive. Their names are Thirza , Adira , Tuena , Tonka and Ayba .
In the spring of 2015, Bokito became a father again. Both breeding females at Rotterdam Zoo ( Tamani , * 1993 and Aya , * 1995) each gave birth to a son this time. His sons are called Aybo and Thabo . Bokito now has a competitor in Rotterdam. It is Nasibu born in 2007 . It is planned that he will continue breeding with Bokitos grown up daughters. The gorilla woman Anette , who was born in 1973, also lives in Rotterdam . Bokito has no common offspring with the 23-year-old female gorilla. Anette's young animals that she had with Bokito's predecessor no longer live in Rotterdam because they were given to other zoos.
The grandson of Matze , who died in 2008, gained broader international fame through his escape attempts, especially through the second one in 2007.
Youth and family
Bokito was born in Berlin in 1996 as the son of the gorilla woman M'penzi and the gorilla man Derrik . This pair of gorillas had two other offspring. These are Yola, born in 1992, and Shanga, born in 2000 . Yola died in 2013, leaving behind a son born in 2009 (in La Palmyre). Shanga no longer lives in Berlin and now has two offspring with her partner Makula (Mosi and Zola) . Bokito's father Derrik died in 2005. Thanks to Derrik , he also has three half-siblings.
Like his sisters, Bokito was not accepted by his mother. He is hand raised. All three offspring showed normal behavior despite hand-rearing, which they have also proven with their offspring. Primatologists are puzzling why gorilla mothers often refuse to accept their young. In the specific case, the possible cause is that M'penzi's mother Dufte was living in Berlin at the same time and this unnatural situation (normally young gorilla women leave their family of origin and join a stranger) led M'penzi to join in the field of young animal rearing behaved passively. In 1992, Dufte had a young animal (Bobo) at the same time as M'Penzi . At that time she raised both young animals, so she did this work for her daughter.
Bokito's great-grandmother is the very old Fatou . She was probably born in the spring of 1957 and is therefore one of the two oldest captive gorillas in the world. Today she still lives in Berlin with her granddaughter, Bokito's mother M'penzi .
outbreaks
- In the summer of 2004, Bokito climbed a three-meter-high wall in his Berlin enclosure, but could be brought back without any problems.
- On May 18, 2007, he overcame the four-meter-wide ditch in his Rotterdam enclosure and attacked a 57-year-old zoo visitor, whom he inflicted several bites and fractures. Bokito then ran into a restaurant where he caused a great panic before he could be stunned with a rifle. The reason for the targeted attack on the woman is suspected to be her emotionally tinged relationship with Bokito. She had previously visited him almost every day and repeatedly made eye contact with him against the advice of the zoo staff.
Others
"Bokitoproof" is a Dutch word for "resistant to extreme vandalism " and was word of the year 2007.
Web links
- Background report on the second outbreak ( Welt Online )
- The gorilla group in the Rotterdam Zoo, shown as a "family tree" ( Flickr )
- Bokito in the GorillaStudBook
Individual evidence
- ↑ When women fall in love with monkeys . In: Die Welt , May 22, 2007
- ↑ [1]