![]() ![]() ![]() Ohrt said the silverback group is mellow and balanced, with Marcus taking to his role of alpha male. “If a keeper walks in on him, he gets a little shy and pretends he wasn’t doing anything,” said Ohrt. Matadi and Tusa have been off birth control for two years, but Marcus is a bit bashful, so breeding has been a challenge. Marcus is recommended to mate with Matadi and Tusa in accordance with the gorilla Species Survival Plan. Physically, you can identify Marcus’s silverback status by his silver-colored coat and enlarged sagittal crest (a ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of his skull). A male such as Marcus transitions into a silverback when he has reached sexual maturity. Marcus leads the silverback group, which includes females Matadi and Tusa. The ABQ BioPark has two separate gorilla groups, which live in separate yards-the silverback group and a second mixed social group. “For me, it’s really great when they get to go out in the yard and be gorillas.” Bashful breeding and burgeoning bachelors “They’re gorillas and they need to know they’re gorillas,” Ohrt said. Zookeepers do a visual check each morning, train with the gorillas, and prepare their medicine, food supplements and enrichment, but after that it’s gorilla time. It’s difficult not to notice the gorilla’s physical and intellectual similarities to humans, but the BioPark’s gorillas live in a world that’s all their own. “It can take them a while to get worked up and once they are, they walk around stiff, acting grumpy or banging the mesh just to let us know-in case we missed it-that they are upset.” Some of them will even roll around, and play,” Ohrt said. “When they are happy we can sit there and hear grumbles for a long period. She said that although these great apes are powerful, they are relatively calm in comparison to some of the other great apes such as chimpanzees. “They’re the strong, silent type,” said Jamie Ohrt, zookeeper. ![]() With his massive size, the ABQ BioPark Zoo’s resident silverback gorilla Marcus can be quite intimidating, but there is a lot more to gorillas than brute strength. Story photo credits: Marcus by Jamie Ohrt Jack with ice globe at Halloween by Jamie Ohrt Huerfanita by ABQ BioPark Tusa the gorilla by ABQ BioPark Matadi during holiday enrichment by ABQ BioPark. ![]()
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