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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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Heart Disease Is Killing Caged Gorillas

Experts try to treat mystery ailment in US zoos

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(Newser) – Gorillas in US zoos are dying from heart disease, and no one knows why, the AP reports. Zookeepers and scientists started a nationwide “Gorilla Health Project” 2 years ago to probe the causes of fibrosing cardiomyopathy, a condition that turns heart muscle into useless fibers and has left scores of gorillas dead in the last few years.

Some say zoo diet is to blame; others wonder about climate, exercise, or the social climate of captive gorilla populations. Investigators are hampered because the lowland gorilla population in Africa has shrunk by more than half over 10 years.  Fewer wild specimens exist to study, and scientists are acknowledging that wild gorillas may be extinct by 2050.

A twenty-three-year-old gorilla named Bebac undergoes a cardiac check-up.
A twenty-three-year-old gorilla named Bebac undergoes a cardiac check-up.   (AP Photo/Jeannie DeBonis, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, HO)
Mopie, a western lowland gorilla who died in 2006, at the National Zoo in Washington, DC in August 2005.
Mopie, a western lowland gorilla who died in 2006, at the National Zoo in Washington, DC in August 2005.   (AP Photo/Smithsonian Institution)
Zookeepers are scrambling to understand what factors may be causing the illnesses and what might be done to save the 368 lowland gorillas that currently reside in 52 zoos across North America.
Zookeepers are scrambling to understand what factors may be causing the illnesses and what might be done to save the 368 lowland gorillas that currently reside in 52 zoos across North America.   (AP Photo/Smithsonian Institution)
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