Zoo Knoxville’s latest pregnant gorilla is well into her second trimester and doing well, according to her zoo keeper and veterinarian.
Kowali, the gorilla, is taking her prenatal vitamins every day and putting on pounds.
“The last weight we have on her, I don’t know if she wants me to tell, but it’s about 260,” said her zookeeper, Crystal Mugan, laughing.
Her protruding belly is the only way her keepers are able to monitor her pregnancy so far. The 37-year-old gorilla is not taking to the ultrasound training.
“For the most part, she hasn’t been too fond of it,” Mugan said>.
“It’s all voluntary,” she went on to say. “We’re not going to use any anesthesia whatsoever. She has to feel it. She has to walk up to the mesh.”
Kowali’s pregnancy was determined by urine samples used on a human pregnancy test. She is estimated to give birth around Sept. 16. This is her sixth child.
Zoo Knoxville's gorilla babies
Zookeepers have to train the gorillas to walk up to a mesh hole in the wall where a veterinarian then uses an ultrasound wand to get images of developing baby. In contrast to Kowali’s resistance, Zoo Knoxville’s previous two gorilla moms adapted to the training and were able to have an ultrasound using the mesh hole.
“They have to trust us,” Mugan said. “They know we're going to do what's right for them."
There is no human contact with the gorillas. Kowali’s doctor cannot be in the same room as her while she is awake.
"Speaking from my wife that's pregnant, she gets an ultrasound every week at the moment,” said Dr. Andrew Cushing of UT College of Veterinary Medicine. “We wish we could get one ultrasound of Kowali. We just know when she was last in heat and when the breeding occurred. So we're kind of predicting her birth date but we haven't got a look at the baby."
They are still holding out hope that Kowali will eventually allow them to touch her belly and get an image.
Until then, they monitor her eating habits, behavior, and visual appearance.
Kowali is one of the critically endangered Western lowland gorillas and is a part of a worldwide species conservation program at Zoo Knoxville.
Zoo Knoxville is hosting a birthday party on Saturday for the gorilla babies who just turned 1-year-old.
