Father and son chimps leave for new life

Media release
2 September 2009

Father and son chimps leave for new life across the ditch

Father and son Wellington Zoo chimpanzees Boyd and Gombe are settling into their new home at Monarto Zoo in South Australia after a safe arrival late last week.

The pair left Wellington Zoo last Wednesday, each in a travelling crate prepared for a comfortable road-trip to Auckland airport, and after a thorough vet inspection.

Vimal Patel, Wellington Zoo's Primate Team Leader, took the chimps on the road and saw them off on their flight under the care of Monarto Zoo's primate curator Beth Pohl.

"We stopped every one and a half hours to check on the boys, and they had settled down really well although Gombe started hooting when we stopped for dinner in Levin. So we had a few strange looks from the locals there."

Vimal says that although Boyd and Gombe will be missed, the timing was right for the pair's relocation.

"Boyd is close to 31 years old. He could be cantankerous at times and would often cause fights within the troupe because he had not accepted his brother, Marty, taking over from him as alpha male," Vimal says.

"At 16, Gombe is a typical teenager, and loves to throw grass at visitors and poke us with sticks when we aren't looking. We will miss his softer side, and the mornings when he would come down and play games of chase."

He says that the reduction in the Zoo's troupe to 11 chimps should help settle the group down, and presents a better male to female ratio.

"Alexis and Temba, our two adolescent male chimps are coming into their maturity, and it will be great to see them develop and enter the male hierarchy."

Boyd and Gombe arrived to a familiar face in Adelaide; Cassandra Butler, a former primate keeper from Wellington Zoo is now a senior primate keeper at Monarto Zoo and says the calm, relaxed and confident manner of the two new arrivals has impressed both Monarto staff and the other chimps in the zoo's newly-established troupe.

Wellington Zoo is a charitable trust principally funded by the Wellington City Council

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