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Bye Bye, Boulas

14 April 2010

Boulas, the silverback Western lowland gorilla said farewell to Belfast Zoo and his keepers on Monday when he began his journey to his new home in Twycross Zoo.

Boulas has been a firm favourite with all zoo visitors and keepers, since his arrival at Belfast Zoo in 2001, and although Boulas integrated well with Belfast’s group of gorillas he unfortunately did not produce any young. Western lowland gorillas are endangered in the wild and as such are part of a captive breeding programme.

On Monday, Boulas began his journey to Twycross Zoo, where he will join two elderly gorillas, called Bongo and Biddy, but in order to make him feel right at home he was accompanied by his keeper, Tracey McWilliams, who will stay with Boulas to provide a familiar face as he settles into his new surroundings.

Boulas’ move will allow our younger male gorilla, Gugas, to become the resident silverback and this will hopefully result in babies in following years. Gugas was rescued from an illegal Portuguese circus and was taken to live at Stuttgart Zoo in a nursery group for orphaned gorillas. It was in this nursery group that Gugas met and formed a bond with a young female gorilla called Bikira.

In 1998, Bikira and Gugas moved to Belfast Zoo and although there are plans for Bikira to move to Valencia Zoo, she will remain to help Gugas settle into his new role as dominant male.

Zoo manager, Mark Challis, said: “There are several significant changes taking place within the gorilla house at the moment. Boulas has been popular, with our visitors and his keepers, throughout his time at Belfast but it is important that he moves to Twycross Zoo as part of the collaborative international captive breeding programme. We are hopeful that Gugas will become a successful breeding male who will be key to supporting the species and their future.”

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