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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.wral.com/news/1938419/detail.html

Zoo Officials Want To Breed Female Gorillas Using Human Procedure
Officials Want To Use In Vitro Fertilization

ASHEBORO, N.C. -- The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro is taking part in a 
national
project. Zoo officials are trying to breed female gorillas by using a 
procedure designed
for people.

"The techniques that will be used are basically the same type of techniques 
that would be
used in human in vitro fertilization," said Dr. Michael Loomis, chief zoo 
veteranarian.

The process will allow researchers to select the sex of the baby. Zoo 
officials said they
need more females because they cannot keep mature males together due to them 
fighting. 

"That leaves the captive population in the United States as a whole with an 
excess of
male gorillas," Loomis said.

Right now, the North Carolina zoo has five gorillas, including two young 
males.

"The three females that we have here will most likely be used as donor 
females. Eggs will
be collected from them," Loomis said.

The gorilla mothers will be selected and implanted with fertilized eggs based 
on their
past mothering skills.

"One thing we don't want to do is to have to hand-raise the babies because 
when you do
that, you take them out of their natural social structure and basically, they 
are no
longer a normal gorilla when you do that," Loomis said.

The first round of procedures begins in the spring. The last time a baby 
gorilla was born
at the zoo was in 1989. Kwanza moved to Chicago in 1998.