Taipei Zoo’s lowland gorilla Happy may have had a stroke, but he can enjoy his twilight years in a health resort for elderly animals, according to zoo research officer and spokesman Eric Hsien-shao Tsao.
“Happy is 48, which equates to 90 in human years,” Tsao said, “Even in good health, the aging silverback was having trouble dealing with young roommate Bao Bao, who did not seem to know his own strength.”
So after saving the gorilla from the stroke last year, the zoo gave him a cozy single room with a heater to keep out the winter chills. The room has coconut fiber and straw strewn across the floor, as well as hemp sacking for extra comfort.
But it is not a case of one size fits all. Qiu-xiang, the matriarch of the zoo’s orangutan clan, appears happy to live with three generations under one roof. The elderly ape is a real zoo veteran, having moved from the zoo’s old Yuanshan campus in northern Taipei to its much bigger setting in southern Muzha back in 1986. She is 34, or close to 80 in human years, but her family still takes care of her.
In their enclosure in the African Tropical Rainforest Area can be found Qiu-xiang’s daughter Xiang-nu, Xiang-nu’s partner Eddie, and their two daughters Niu-li and Niu-fang, born in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
However, aging hippopotamus Fei Fei is another animal that is having trouble with the rough and tumble of jungle life in the African Animal Area.
At 31, Fei Fei is the oldest hippo of the 15-member pod, which includes four males and 11 females. She is only about half the size of the other adults and has bad teeth, which leaves her well down in the pecking order when it comes to group meals.
Tsao said that Fei Fei joined the zoo soon after the move to Muzha, but the 31-year-old grandmother is now the skinniest of all the adults. Staff found that for every three to five chomps by the other hippos at the communal feeding trough, Fei Fei was only managing one. So they are now making sure she gets individual attention and supplementary feeding with extra portion of nutritious pellets that contain grass, oatmeal and bran.
Hippos typically live to 35 in the wild, and 40 to 50 in captivity, the zoo said. (SDH)