Saturday, July 17, 1999
Zoo gorilla expecting
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Chalk up another one for Chaka.
“That's right, the demon seed has been planted,” said Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden general curator Mike Dulaney.
Rosie, a 25-year-old western lowland gorilla, is expecting.
The baby will be Cincinnati's 47th gorilla birth, a U.S. record. Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo has had 45. London's Howletts Zoo is the world leader with 53.
Chaka, a 14-year-old silverback brought here on loan in 1994 from the Philadelphia Zoo, helped kick-start the gorilla breeding program, which faltered when Colossus, the zoo's other male, failed to perform.
Chaka has since had eight offspring, the ninth on the way.
The baby, Mr. Dulaney said, is due in early- to mid-November (gorillas have a 32- to 34-week gestation period). This will be Rosie's eighth baby. Her first six were with Ramses, on loan to the Fort Worth Zoo. Baby No.7, with Mosuba of the Omaha Zoo, was the world's first in-vitro gorilla baby: Timu, born in 1995.
Chaka, who is back in Philadelphia, has been paired with Demba, 29, as the nucleus of a new breeding program, said Philadelphia Zoo spokeswoman Kristin Lewis.
His absence could mean that Rosie's pregnancy will be the zoo's last for a while, since Colossus continues to show no interest.
If nothing happens within a year, the zoo will try to borrow a male gorilla from the Species Survival Plan, a group that oversees breeding programs.
“Who knows? There may be another Chaka ready to strut his stuff,” Mr. Dulaney said.
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