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[Josh Greenman <joshg1973 AT yahoo.com>]

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/education/2220326/detail.html

San Diego Zoo Officials Go Ape Over Gorilla Discovery

Animals May Be Part Of Unknown Subspecies

POSTED: 2:58 p.m. PDT May 21, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- Researchers with the San Diego Zoo have discovered a population 
of gorillas
in a remote forest of Cameroon where no gorillas were thought to live and 
which may be
part of a previously unknown subspecies. 

Researchers Bethan J. Morgan and Chris Wild found the troop during a wildlife 
survey that
is part of the Zoological Society of San Diego's effort to establish a 
national park and
ecological reserves in Bakossiland, a mountain region of Cameroon. 

Morgan, who is with the society's Center for Reproduction of Endangered 
Species, and
Wild, head of the center's Bakossiland field station, found the apes while 
searching for
drills, which are the world's largest monkeys. 

 
The team briefly sighted seven gorillas in the Ebo forest, the San Diego 
Union-Tribune
reported Wednesday. 

Alan Dixson, director of conservation and science at the Zoological Society, 
said
researchers will conduct genetic testing of hairs recovered from the 
gorillas' nests to
determine whether they are part of a gorilla subspecies. 

The discovery will be formally announced to the scientific community in a 
paper to be
published in the International Journal of Primatology, Dixson said.