Grief in Zoo – Tatu Died (Portal of Prague)

Grief in Zoo – Tatu Died

Prague Zoo was struck by a tragic accident. The gorilla Tatu, born in 2007 to Kijeva, accidentally hung himself on the rope that he had just untangled.

Oskar Exner
31. July 2012

“It all happened when he was playing in the small ‘bedroom’, as he untangled a rope and hung one of the strings around his neck,” said Michal Šťastný from Prague Zoo. It was all over in such a short time while the zookeepers worked in another part of the pavilion. At 9 am, zookeeper Gabriela Kopecká found out that Kambo was holdings Tatu, who was hanging on the rope. Immediately she called other zookepers and Vet MVDr. Roman Vodička. They had to spray water to separate other gorillas, especially Kamba who refused to leave Tatu. At this time, Tatu already didn’t show any signs of life. Once they had extricated him, they started with resuscitation, unfortunately in vain. Zoo Prague Director Miroslav Bobek said that Tatu’s death is the most tragic event since the floods ten years ago. According to the curator of mammals, Pavel Brandl, it isn’t in human power to prevent such accidents.

31. July 2012
31. July 2012

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Tatu

Tatu was born in Zoo Prague on 30th May 2007 to female Kijiva and male Richard. His name means the second. He was the second offspring of his parents as well as the second gorilla baby kept in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Since the beginning, Tatu behaved like a lively and curious baby. In comparison with the first-born Moja, he sooner ventured from the security of his mother’s arms and back on which babies are carried. Moja encourage her younger brother to play while she spent most of the time with Kamba, the oldest female of the group, who became a grandmother to the youngest ones.

Also Tatu later on resorted to Kamba. This was at the end of April 2010 when the last Kijiva’s baby, the male Kibur, was born. Since then, Tatu spent most of his time with Kamba.

Thanks to his adventurous spirit, Tatu kept the whole family active because he provoked to play not only other baby gorillas but also adults. It was Tatu, who started paying increased attention to female Bikira, who was until then rather an outsider to the group. He started riding on her back and helped her to become closer with the family.

Tatu died accidentally in the morning on 27th July 2012.

Grief in Zoo – Tatu Died

Tatu

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