Mutter Gombe hatte sich nach der Geburt vorbildlich um den kleinen George gekümmert. In den Monaten zuvor fiel allerdings auf, dass er in seiner Entwicklung zurückblieb, das Zoopersonal wollte ihn jedoch nicht von seiner Mutter trennen, um Untersuchungen vorzunehmen.Little chimp George from Zoo Krefeld died of an inherently defect of the lungs and an underdeveloped cerebellum. This is the result of the pathological exams which has been published now after 3 weeks, assuming that these defects were connected with the late pregnancy of Mother Gombe who was already 34 (double it and you get the equivalent in human years) when she gave birth to George in September 2007 after a baby pause of 17 years.
In the beginning everything seemed fine, Gombe was a very caring mom but during the last months, the zoo staff was concerned about the fact that George stayed back in his development. A seperation of mother and baby would have been necessary to do the medical exams, the zoo decided for the relationship between mother and child. Nach seinem Tod trug Gombe den Kleinen noch 2 Tage herum bis sie ihn ablegte, ein Verhalten, das im August auch bei Gorillamutter Gana(photo 3) aus dem Zoo Münster Schlagzeilen gemacht hat, nachdem ihr nur 3 Monate altes Baby Claudio starb. In der Natur tragen Affenmütter ihre Kleinen manchmal noch wochenlang mit sich herum, bevor sie es loslassen.
After his death Gombe carried the dead baby 2 days before she left him somewhere in the enclosure. This behaviour made worldwide headlines in August 2008, when gorilla mum Gana refused to let go of the body of her dead 3 months old baby Claudio for 6 days, a behaviour which can be found in the wild too, sometimes even for weeks.
Photo credits: Stadt Krefeld (1 & 2), Stern (3)
Thanks to Ulli J who made us aware of the death of little George in Krefeld!
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