- Four Western lowland gorillas, N’akouh, Nukta, N’kato and Madiba, arrived in Nanjing from the Netherlands after a 10.5-hour flight.
- The gorillas, accompanied by Dutch keepers, underwent quarantine and now reside in Hongshan Forest Zoo’s African Rainforest Pavilion.
- They receive 40kg of fresh vegetables daily, plus leaves and primate pellets, ensuring balanced nutrition in their new home.
- The transfer, facilitated by EAZA, followed a decade of preparation, including training and facility upgrades at Hongshan Zoo.
Gorillas in captivity in our world today number only in the hundreds. Hence, four of them arriving in Nanjing and destined for our local Zoo is a big deal. Say hello to N’akouh, Nukta, N’kato and Madiba, fresh from the Netherlands!
It’s been fully 10 years in the making; a decade of preparation which came to a successful conclusion recently as the four Western lowland gorillas were cleared to leave their quarantine quarters at Hongshan Forest Zoo.
They had survived a 10.5-hour, 8,700-kilometre flight, having left their adopted home of the Royal Burger’s Zoo in Arnhem and taken off from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport at 16:30 on 8 February. It was the first time the gorillas, and they are four brothers by the way, had set foot on a plane.
In order to give them a smooth and comfortable flight, four customised-transport boxes had become their temporary home, while N’akouh, Nukta, N’kato and Madiba were accompanied by the two humans with whom they were most familiar, Dutch keepers Jord and Nick.
With a smooth landing at Nanjing Lukou International Airport on the morning of 9 February, all relevant authorities worked closely together to complete the brothers’ transfer via two constant-temperature transports as quickly as possible. By 13:40, the four gorillas were safe in an isolation area at Hongshan Forest Zoo.
Jord and Nick remained in Nanjing for 2 weeks to keep an eye on the gorillas who had been in their care since the brothers’ childhood. Then they were to return home, satisfied that the four gorillas had, among other things, enough to eat in their new Chinese home.
“We have arranged 40 kilograms of fresh vegetables per day, comprising 22 kinds of vegetables each week for the four gorillas, including leafy vegetables such as lettuce, baby cabbage and Shanghai greens, root vegetables such as carrots and purple sweet potatoes, plus celery, onions, broccoli and much more”, a local keeper commented when speaking with Nanjing Daily. In addition, the brothers receive a sufficient amount of fresh leaves, such as Ligustrum lucidum, banana, bamboo leaves and primate pellets daily to ensure their balanced nutrition.
N’akouh, Nukta, N’kato and Madiba are said to be enjoying their food in Nanjing, while keepers have also switched from using English for behavioural training to trying to communicate with the four in Chinese. The brothers are increasingly trusting their keepers; cautious at the beginning to now being more relaxed and comfortable.
Their transfer to Nanjing had come by way of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA), according to the gorilla population management and individual transfer plan under the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP).
It was a development dating back to 2014, when Hongshan Forest Zoo began to explore the possibility of introducing gorillas. In 2019, the Gorilla Population Management Committee of EAZA sent a letter to confirm that it had agreed to officially list the Zoo as a member of its global gorilla population management.
In the following years, European experts regularly visited Nanjing for in-depth discussions and to conduct systematic training for the Hongshan team. Then by way of exchange, as recently as last December, Hongshan Forest Zoo sent three professional and technical backbone staff to Burger’s Zoo for further training.
The new home for the brothers is located in the Zoo’s African Rainforest Pavilion, which took 7 years to build, over an area of more than 7,000 square metres. The Pavilion simulates an African rainforest environment, with pools, rich vegetation and perches, plus much more, giving N’akouh, Nukta, N’kato and Madiba a feeling of home.
