Warning: some of the pictures shown below may be disturbing.
As part of our routine health care of the chimpanzees at Tacugama, we recently gave Gorilla (yes that’s really his name -you can read more about him on one of our earlier blogs here) a booster vaccination. After a few days, Gorilla’s leg showed signs of stiffness and discomfort and his leg started to swell. We became increasingly concerned when Gorilla didn’t respond to follow up treatment and decided that we had to knock him down to investigate more closely. As sweet natured and friendly as Gorilla is, he is still an adult male chimpanzee weighing over 50kg and sedation is the only way that we can do a thorough check.
Carrying a sedated Gorilla to the operating table
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