The African plain located behind the elephant enclosure has a new resident! A young female Chapman's zebra (Equus burchellii) born on May 6th is doing well and can be seen outside with her mother, the other zebras, the impala and blue wildebeest herds, as well as the ostriches.
After the successful protected contact between our 3 chimpanzees, we rapidly proceeded to the introduction between Homer, Lily and Sanaga inside the indoor enclosure. Introductions always take place inside buildings so that the keepers and the vet could separate the individuals in case of aggression.
Our pair of red-ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra) formed in April 2003 proved again to be very successful as the female gave birth to twins on April 22nd.
Transfers of chimpanzees from a zoo to another can be challenging (chimps are very sensitive to stress and can be very aggressive to one another). That's why we have proceeded very gradually to give Homer enough time to get used both to his new keepers and his new living place.