Matzo (gorilla)
Matze (* around 1957 in Central Africa ; † August 13, 2008 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a male gorilla who had lived in the Frankfurt Zoo since 1969 .
At the age of 45 he became the world's oldest gorilla father. Matze was one of the symbols of the zoo and known far beyond Frankfurt.
Life
The gorilla was born around 1957 in Central Africa and captured there. After a period of wandering with showmen , Matze came to the Frankfurt Zoo on May 24, 1969 at the age of about twelve. Here the silverback became the leader of a group of four female gorillas with whom he fathered a total of nineteen offspring. Since the beginning of 2008, Matze had increasing age problems. He suffered from osteoarthritis and stomach ulcers and lost weight from 160 kilograms to 120 kilograms. Therefore, the management of the zoo decided to put Matze to sleep on August 13, 2008. At around 51 years of age, he significantly exceeded the normal life expectancy of 35 to 40 years for gorillas.
sculpture
The zoo erected a memorial in his honor . The bronze sculpture by Wolfgang Weber shows the head of the silver back and, as the zoo reports, “aptly depicts Matzes characteristic facial expression”.
progeny
His sons Horst , Richard and Akili are today the heads of their respective families in the zoos of Dublin , Prague and Amsterdam ( Artis ), his grandsons Bobo and Bokito in the zoos of Heidelberg and Rotterdam ( Diergaarde Blijdorp ). His last son Nasibu (* April 2007) also lives in Rotterdam.
Web links
- Image: Matze (Flickr)
- Image: List of Matzes descendants
- Landmark of the Frankfurt Zoo: The oldest bred gorilla in the world is dead. Report from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
- Matze in GorillaStudBook ( Memento from September 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.dirk-petzold.de/frankfurt/ituri_-_das_neue_gorillababy.html
- ↑ a b Sebastian Amaral Anders: Sovereign, peaceful and calm. Zoo director Manfred Niekisch talks about the late Matze like a good friend. Report of the Frankfurter Rundschau from August 14, 2008; Frankfurt mourns Matze. Report of the Frankfurter Neue Presse from August 14, 2008
- ↑ Matze in GorillaStudBook ( Memento from September 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.op-online.de/nachrichten/frankfurt-rhein-main/gorilla-matze-denkmal-547994.html
- ↑ Nasibu in GorillaStudBook ( Memento from August 1, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )