Gorilla Doctors

Category: Orphaned Mountain Gorillas, Routine Health Checks | Date: Apr 01 2008 | By: admin

Mapendo falling asleep under anesthesia, March 18, 2008.

MGVP director Mike Cranfield and I were finishing up a meeting when Magda returned from Goma, where she’d spent the day working with Jacques. “So, how is Mapendo?” I asked. Magda smiled broadly and replied, “A bit fat!” She and Jacques had just given the orphan gorilla a physical exam under anesthesia. Even better, Mapendo’s ringworm is resolving and she shows no signs of rickets, the nutritional disease that contributed to the death of her companion, Vumilia.

Dr. Magdalena Braum and Dr. Jacques Iyanya examining Mapendo, March 18, 2008.

Magda and Jacques had collected samples for a variety of routine tests, including fecal parasite check, blood cell count, serum chemistry analysis, and infectious disease screening. They tested Mapendo for recent exposure to tuberculosis by injecting a tiny amount of a reagent, tuberculin, in her upper eyelid—a standard TB screening tests for primates. And they vaccinated her for measles, rabies, tetanus, and polio. We vaccinate the gorilla orphans in our care because they spend so much time with humans; it’s easy to do, and we can check on how well the vaccines work by measuring blood antibody levels in the future.

Mapendo eating clover, March 25, 2008.

The TB test is read at 72 hours, so we get this result quickly. If the gorilla has recently been exposed to the organisms that cause tuberculosis, either the human or bovine form, or has an active TB infection, the eyelid swells. This test can be confusing in gorillas, however. False positive reactions have been known to occur in gorillas exposed to related bacteria that live in the soil, requiring a battery of additional tests. Fortunately, Mapendo’s test was negative. We’ll test her again in a few months and then every year she lives in captivity. With TB on the rise in human populations, I worry a lot about this disease. Not only is diagnosis difficult but treatment requires daily oral medicine with a cocktail of drugs, a protocol that would be impossible to administer to the mountain gorillas of Virunga and Bwindi or to the Kahuzi-Biega Grauer’s gorillas.

Mapendo with caretaker, February 19, 2008.

Our lab manager, Jean Paul, ran a number of routine tests on the samples from Mapendo. He found a number of parasites in her fecal sample. Most healthy free-living gorillas carry some parasitic protozoa, worm eggs, and larvae. But because they move around a lot, these parasites rarely build up in their environment. Not true for captive-living gorillas: because Mapendo lives in an enclosed space, her parasites could some day cause a problem. She’d already been treated with deworming medicine so it’s clear that she’ll need to be on a regular regimen of parasite testing and treatment.

Mapendo soon after her arrival, January 5, 2008.

Jean Paul also found that Mapendo has high cholesterol, 353 mg/dl. Not too high, but above reported normal levels for captive Western lowland gorillas and higher than what we’ve recorded for mountain and Grauer’s gorillas. We think the problem is her diet, specifically her three daily feedings of infant formula milk. Just as in humans, high-fat diets have been associated with elevated cholesterol levels and heart disease in captive-living Western lowland gorillas. Mapendo needed the extra calories when she first arrived, but no longer. The caretakers will reduce the volume of milk and switch to a lower calorie formula.

Mapendo has had an excellent appetite since her arrival, February 19, 2008.

As noted earlier, another test to be run on Mapendo’s blood samples is infectious disease screening. Here we look for evidence of exposure to a number of viruses as well as those we vaccinate against (after we give the vaccine these tests will always be positive)—possibilities that include herpes, Ebola, influenza, and parainfluenza. Unfortunately, sending samples to outside laboratories in the US or Europe takes time. We need an export CITES permit first. In Mapendo’s case, this document must be issued by officials in DR Congo. We’ve requested it, but know we’ll have to wait.

Three Grauer’s gorillas housed at the Interim Quarantine Facility, in Kinigi, Rwanda.

Though we can push through the red tape to expedite the permit process if the gorilla is sick or we’re worried about a possible disease outbreak, Mapendo’s situation doesn’t fall into this category. We do need her results before she can live with other Grauer’s gorillas, but that’s still a distant prospect. Last week, a number of the partners involved in orphan gorilla care visited yet another location in Congo that could be developed into a gorilla sanctuary. But such a facility is months, if not years, away from becoming reality. And we still need an interim quarantine facility near Goma, like the one we have in Kinigi, Rwanda.

Mapendo’s teeth (January 17, 2008)

Mapendo’s physical exam yielded one more important piece of data: her age. Though we’d photographed her teeth before—when her mouth was opportunistically open—we couldn’t be certain of her dental formula without a hands-on exam. Magda and Jacques confirmed that Mapendo has both of her upper and lower premolars but no molars, which places the her age between 2.5- and 3.5-years-old . Given her size (she now weighs 16 kg), we think Mapendo is probably about three. At this age in the wild, she’d still be nursing a bit, but would be mostly foraging on green plants and a few fruits. No wonder she’s gotten a bit plump on all that milk.

Mapendo on her climbing structure, March 25, 2008.

I visited Mapendo in Goma the week after her exam just to check on how things were going. The little gorilla avoided me. Most smaller gorilla orphans can be distracted with a tiny bit of food or the offer of a bottle when it comes time for an injection. This strategy had worked well for Magda the week before when she needed to give Mapendo her anesthetic. A quick poke with a needle is easier all around than a dart . . . but the gorillas remember who stuck them. No doubt I reminded Mapendo of Magda: we’re both white women with brown hair, and when we visit the orphans we wear similar gear—masks, gloves, and grey coveralls.

Mapendo drinking water, March 25, 2008.

Jacques suggested we humans sit on the ground, which made a big difference. Mapendo strutted around a bit and climbed briefly on her tripod. Then she sat down in the shade next to one of her caretakers, who plucked bits of clover from the grass for her to eat. When the other caretaker crossed the enclosure to the night house to get her a bottle of water, Mapendo ran like lightning to beat him to the door, and nearly succeeded. She drank the water as if it were an enormous treat.

I left feeling pleased to see Mapendo thriving, but sad that her future is so uncertain.

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