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A special birthday treat: Yogurt for Mumba |
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He may have retired from public life, but that doesn’t mean Granby Zoo’s oldest resident Mumba doesn’t celebrate his birthday anymore.
Mumba celebrates his 48th birthday this week. That’s about 100 in people years.
For the special day Mumba got a Minigo fresh yogurt cheese with blueberries — a special treat since he’s not supposed to eat too much sugar, said Granby Zoo Curator and Director of Animal Care Alain Fafard. Mumba really likes yogurt, but mainly eats a diet of fruits and vegetables that zookeepers hide in his enclosure for him to forage and find.
Two years ago, Mumba’s birthday was celebrated with the unveiling of a bronze sculpture in his likeness. That’s the closest the public will get to seeing him these days. A longtime favorite among regular visitors to the zoo, the arthritic ape has steadfastly refused to leave his private quarters for more than a year.
At first, zookeepers left the door to his public outdoor enclosure open. But he refused to make the climb to see his adoring public, said Granby Zoo spokeswoman Catherine Page. The longtime star of the zoo has definitely decided to retire and zookeepers have been letting the standoffish simian stay in his room in the ape’s night quarters.
“He preferred to stay downstairs and we let him decide,” said Fafard.
While the retired ape is slowing down, keepers say he is still alert. He is eating well and is in good health, aside from the arthritis that is slowing him down.
Mumba is also at home in his role as patriarch of the primates, said Fafard, noting that in the presence of the other gorillas he beats his chest and cries out to show he’s the dominant male.
“Of course he cannot impose himself on the other gorillas and show he’s the boss,” Fafard said, noting the younger gorillas are in better physical shape and could get the better of arrogant old ape.
Fafard said that in the apes’ apartment, where Mumba has contact with other apes through the bars on the cages at night, he is still intrigued by his recent roommates N’sabi, Jawara, and Zwalani — the trio of youngsters who arrived from the Calgary Zoo in 2006 to take up residence in the Afrika Pavilion along with Mumba and Leo, the zoo’s middle-aged ape.
Mumba is particularly taken with the young Zwalani, who is eight years old. Fafard said the young ape teases Mumba, stealing his food through the bars and pulling the old ape’s fur. When Zwalani is around, Mumba cuddles up against him through the cage wall.
The 477-pound gorilla is a lot less active these days, spending much of his time resting and napping — much like aging apes do in nature, said Fafard. He also has toys and climbing structures in his cage, but his old muscles don’t allow him to play around like his used to.
While he no longer climbs up to the public exhibit, zookeepers have installed grating on the back door of his enclosure. Not only does that let in sunlight and air, he often watches zoo workers going by.
A few years ago, Mumba gave his keepers a scare. He was having episodes of paralysis and zookeepers feared he would not be around for much longer.
But he fooled them all by making a full recovery thanks to a daily cocktail of anti-inflammatories and natural products like glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate.
In the wild gorillas live 35 to 40 years, but in captivity they can survive up to 50 years. The world’s oldest captive gorilla, Jenny, celebrated her 55th birthday in May at the Dallas Zoo.
Mumba, an orphan whose parents were likely killed by poachers in the Congo, became one of the first inmates of the zoo, which opened in 1961. He arrived in the Eastern Townships a year earlier by way of a zoo in Hamburg, Germany.
The baby ape, then called Dédé, spent his first two years with an adoptive human family who bottle-fed him. The lone gorilla spent his first year at the Granby Zoo on an island in the middle of a fenced exhibit. There, the public tossed a variety of objects at him, including lit cigarettes which Mumba picked up and puffed to copy his viewers.
In 1989, Granby Zoo closed its outdated Monkey House and transferred all of its simians to other zoos. But its primary primate was too old for the move, so Mumba remained behind.
In 1996, the zoo opened its new Afrika pavilion and reintroduced Mumba to his own kind. The knuckle dragging bachelor was introduced to some female gorillas, but Mumba found it impossible to relate to them because he had spent most of his life in the company of humans.
Zookeepers hoped Mumba would provide progeny, but the reluctant bachelor failed to mate. Veterinarians even gave up on efforts to artificially inseminate a female because, they said, Mumba’s seed was about as potent as dishwater.
Veterinarians here and elsewhere were disappointed because Mumba, who is one of about 700 lowland gorillas living in captivity in zoos around the world, is one of the few that was born in the wild where the species is on the verge or extinction.
That means Mumba’s genes are unique and valuable and could have contributed to the genetic diversity that is crucial for the survival of the species. While they hope Mumba will be with them for a long time, Fafard said everything is ready for Mumba’s death. While the zoo conserves and even displays the bones of other animals that die at the zoo, zookeepers are concerned staffers, who have grown attached to the gorilla, would react badly.
Fafard said that plans have already been made to preserve as many tissue samples as possible and will be share with research institutes. The DNA, that was taken from Mumba a few years ago, could allow the sterile gorilla one day to produce progeny through cloning, if and when the technology becomes available.
By Rita Legault
July 25, 2008
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Montreal Canadiens
