Gorillas In The Mist? No, In The Leaves!

Primate keepers at the Aspinall Foundation Port Lympne Wild Animal Park have flipped the script of the old adage that Gorilla’s live in the Mist, as for now they live in the leaves! That’s right, a whole family of Gorillas had the added bonus of thousands of leaves added to their enclosure to prepare them for a new life in their native land of Africa.

The gorilla family will soon be returning to their original homeland as part of The Aspinall Foundation’s Back To The Wild scheme, which has already seen a wide range of other animals take the epic journey home. The leaves have been collected from far and wide across the 600 acre site at the Port Lympne animal park, which will hopefully help the gorilla family to acclimatise to how their new surroundings will be in Africa.

The keepers have also hidden a selection of treats within the leaves for the gorillas to find. This will not only provide excellent nourishment, but also stimulate their mind as they search for the nuts, seeds and other delicious treats.

Head of Gorilla Section at Port Lympne, Phil Ridges, said –

Once the group reach their new home they will have to learn to live in the wild, although we often do enrichment with the family to encourage foraging, climbing and other natural behaviours our gardening team have been busy collecting the fallen leaves so we thought this might provide some interesting foraging enrichment. Visitors to Port Lympne over the coming months will be able to see the family group in their home at the Palace Of The Apes. Every day at 12.00pm and 3.00pm we have educational talks at the palace that coincide with feeding times, so that visitors can find out more about Djala and his family.

Head of the gorilla family who will be travelling to Africa is the silverback Djala, who will be joined by his five children and his five wives. Five wives?! That’s a bit greedy Djala! Let’s hope that with that many wives he manages to ‘leaf’ them all on good terms! Here’s wishing Djala and his family a safe journey into the wilds of Africa thanks to the Aspinall Foundation’s Back to the Wild scheme, a truly amazing initiative that is sure to be a massive success for all those involved in the project.