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Jersey Zoo has restarted work on new multi-million-pound gorilla enclosure following delays due to increased building material costs.
The second phase of the construction started this week and is due to be completed in the summer of 2025.
The enclosure hopes to provide more flexibility for gorillas to choose how and when they interact with their environment, keepers and other mammals.
Pictured: The new enclosure will become home to gorillas Badongo, Bahasha, Hlala Kahilli and Amari.
The new gorilla house will feature two large indoor housing spaces, eight different bedroom spaces, training areas and weighing areas, and a state-of-the-art heating, humidity and cooling system.
It will also host research balconies for observing the gorillas’ behaviour as well as a full CCTV system to allow keepers to monitor them.
The enclosure will become home to gorillas Badongo, Bahasha, Hlala Kahilli and Amari.
In 2019, Jersey Zoo hosted their public art trail ‘Go Wild Gorillas’ with the aim of raising the much-needed funds to replace the current gorilla house that opened in 1981.
At the end of the trail, the giant sculptures went to auction and raised over £1.1m for the new gorilla house.
Pictured: The ‘Go Wild Gorillas’ auction raised over £1.1m for the new gorilla house.
The rest of the funds were raised through donations and the Government of Jersey’s Fiscal Stimulus Fund covered the costs of the preparatory works – including relocating the Visayan warty pig enclosure.
Curator of Mammals at Jersey Zoo, Ben Matthews, said: "We have learned so much about the management of gorillas in zoos, and the new building will allow us to put so much of that into practice.
"While the building is full of features that reflect this learning, for me, the recurring theme for the house is flexibility.
"For the gorillas, this means the flexibility to choose how and when they interact with their environment, keepers and other troop members.
"By affording them that choice, we can do so much to optimise their welfare here at the zoo for many years to come."
Pictured: The new enclosure hopes to optimise the welfare of gorillas at Jersey Zoo.
He continued: "For the team, this means flexibility when managing our troop.
"The building offers scope to acclimate new arrivals, both births and new gorillas, a commitment to hold animals in high-specification off-show housing when necessary, and options to train them for all manner of husbandry procedures behind the scenes.
"And finally, the house will provide a more flexible viewing experience for our guests, even in inclement weather, with opportunities to see the gorillas displaying natural behaviours, foraging in the deep bark chip floor, interacting with high-level feeders or building nests in the complex climbing structures.”
Gorillas have been at Jersey Zoo since 1959 and the current gorilla house was built in 1981.
Pictured top: Badongo is one of the gorillas who will move into the new enclosure upon completion.
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