Cork lass too loud for council

[CRAZYDAVE]

26 August 2008

Cork lass too loud for council By Sean O’Riordan

THE noisy love-making of a Cork “swinger” has landed her in trouble with a city council in England. Her guttural whines and high-pitched crescendo of l’amour have not amused a number of her neighbours in Bristol. Many claimed they spent sleepless nights, and mornings, listening to the female and her older partner “making out”. They said that the Cork lassie, in particular, was making the most noise during the amorous sessions.

Having endured several weeks of insomnia, a number of people made complaints to the city council, which sent out its environmental health officers to check out the decibel levels. Officials upheld the complaints, and as a result the Cork lassie and her mate has been yellow-carded.

Duana, and partner, Samuel, have been hit with a curfew. We are referring, of course, to a pair of rare gibbons who will now be confined indoors at Bristol Zoo for three nights each week, instead of being let out every night. Duana, who is seven, was born at Fota Wildlife Park, Cork and was given to Bristol Zoo last November to help it with a breeding programme. So when her 11-year-old mate, Samuel, arrived recently from Twycross Zoo in Leicester, nature duly took its course, albeit it in a fairly energetic fashion. Up until now the gibbons had the run, day and night, of an outdoor compound complete with playground equipment and trees. But now they will be confined to barracks, so the restless neighbours can get a bit of shut-eye.

Duana could scream away to her heart’s content in Fota, as there are very few houses nearby. But it is a very different case in Bristol, where the zoo is surrounded by a lot of residential development. Adult gibbons’ calls can reach up to 100 decibels and can be heard up to two miles away. Gibbons remain mostly quiet during the day, but at night and come dawn their howling reaches a peak. Mating calls are usually initiated by the female, although troops of gibbons often howl together to notify rivals of territorial boundaries.