By Sheree Russouw
Makoko
Photo: Dawie de Jongh
HE took one furtive step. Then another. Then Makoko, the gorilla from Germany, put his feet on African soil for the first time.
The 19-year-old gorilla was finally released from a 45-day quarantine at the Johannesburg Zoo on Thursday, 20 January.
A large contingent of journalists eager to get their first look at Max the gorilla's younger - and leaner - successor, greedily snapped photos of the camera-shy gorilla.
Makoko - named after a river in Central Africa - arrived at the Johannesburg Zoo from the Munster Zoo in Germany in early November and has been in quarantine since, kept in a two-room quarantine facility to protect him from illness.
And when he ventured out for the first time on Thursday, it seemed as if the young gorilla was not at all prepared for the large crowd gathered outside his enclosure.
Every few minutes, Makoko would peer curiously at the people from behind a cluster of rocks and suddenly dart back into the quarantine facility.
"He is so used to being locked up in the quarantine facility and that is why he keeps on going back to those rooms," explains zoo curator Dominic Moss. "The rooms still seem safe to him for now. It will take time for him to get used to people."
Even though he disappeared into his rooms Makoko was not entirely out of the public eye. Two CCTV surveillance cameras inside the quarantine facility offered views of him gobbling fruit and tickling himself playfully before the novelty of the crowd inevitably drew him outside again.
While the young male will make his public debut at the zoo this weekend, the real challenge is for Makoko to be introduced to the widowed Lisa.
And the zoo has chosen a romantic day for their first date - Valentine's Day. The lonely pair, who've been neighbours since Makoko's arrival, have already had the chance to smell each other and have caught glimpses of each other through a mirror installed in their respective enclosures.
The 34-year-old Lisa has been waiting patiently for seven months to meet the European toy boy 15 years' her junior. Her long-time partner Max, who shot to fame in 1997 after taking on a criminal on the run from police, died of old age in May 2004.
The zoo is hoping that the pair will breed - efforts to get Max and Lisa to breed were unsuccessful. But only time will tell whether Makoko will be a replacement for Max, says zoo chief executive Jenny Grey.
"During his quarantine, we have had a glimpse of the promise of Makoko. Now that he is out of quarantine, he can get used to his enclosure.
"He has the freedom to come and go as he pleases. We urge the Johannesburg public to come see this huge, magnificent animal," says Grey.
Makoko is "very different" to Max, says primate curator Phillip Cronje, adding he has his own unique personality.
Cronje has been the only person to have constant contact with Makoko while the gorilla has been in quarantine and Cronje jokes that both man and animal "have had enough of each other".
Says Cronje: "Makoko has settled down very well. He is actually very playful. He likes to laugh.
"He has this habit of standing up and bouncing up and down when you stare at him, which can be quite irritating when he does it for half an hour. But he loves to play."
But for now, Makoko's brief days of play are over. He is hard at work building up a sizeable lobola so he can win Lisa's heart on 14 February.
The gorilla is urging members of the public to contribute to his lobola fund by sending a R5 SMS with the word "gorilla" to 36365. He promises to personally send generous donors a grateful SMS back: "Thank you for your support. I'm madly in love with Lisa."
And he is urging people to dig deeper in their pockets and donate another R5 - to make sure his bride is for keeps, of course.
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